Oh please. The only thing that you could pretend was "met with calls of racism and xenophobia" was closing the boarder to China, which was done in such an egregiously non-closing way (basically only barring Chinese nationals, while allowing tens of thousands of others to come from China every day) that it may as well not have happened. He then did barely anything else for a month except state that the US had nothing to worry about.

For all the people downvoting you, yes it's a bit obtuse to deny that his opponents (I'm very ambivalent about him, leaning towards distaste) didn't use any and every opportunity to call him a racist/xenophobe/authoritarian/etc.

He was like a drug to both his supporters and detractors.

Was Michael Lewis personally calling Trump's response racist and xenophobic? If not, then what does that have to do with what Michael Lewis has to say now?

I'm sorry, what policy are you talking about, exactly?

I'm having a hard time remembering Trump supporting any Covid restrictions whatsoever. He did not, for example, stop air travel from China or Italy at any point. And he was famously against extending Covid testing.