Trump Told Bob Woodward in March That He Was Deliberately Downplaying ‘Deadly’ Coronavirus

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President Donald Trump admitted to intentionally downplaying the coronavirus in public, despite having a much better understanding, privately, of its devastating impact — according to blockbuster reporting from legendary journalist Bob Woodward.

In preview excerpts of Woodward’s book, titled Rage, which were published by CNN Wednesday, the longtime Washington correspondent chronicled how Trump’s private concerns about the virus did not match up with his public assurances that Covid-19 was merely “a hoax.”

“This is deadly stuff,” Trump told Woodward on Feb. 7. The president also called the virus “more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”

Trump made those comments to Woodward in private despite comparing Covid-19 to the flu in public.

Trump spoke with Woodward 18 times between December 2019 and July 2020. On March 19 – days after his primetime Oval Office address to the nation about the pandemic — the president told Woodward that he had been, and planned to continue, downplaying the virus.

“I wanted to always play it down,” Trump told Woodward. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”

Trump’s response to the virus has been widely denounced — with countless experts criticizing him for being too slow in taking actions to protect the country.

This story is developing.