In early February, shortly before Donald Trump made various irresponsible claims about coronavirus dying off “with the hotter weather,” being “under control” in the U.S., and being no worse than a seasonal “flu,” the president was privately acknowledging the deadly nature of the impending pandemic. During a February 7 interview with Bob Woodward, which is detailed in the Washington Post veteran’s upcoming book on the Trump presidency and which was obtained on tape by both the Post and CNN, the president described the virus’s extremely dangerous nature. “You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” he told Woodward during a phone call. “And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu.” He went on to conclude that COVID-19 “is deadly stuff,” a hard contrast to his simultaneous reassurances to Americans that the virus may “miraculously” go away by April.
In March, when reality had more than caught up to the White House’s lies, Trump explained the reasoning behind his dishonesty. “I wanted to always play it down,” he said in a March 19 interview with Woodward, adding, “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.” Speaking with a level of honesty he has rarely, if ever, displayed during his coronavirus press briefings, the president then noted, “Now it’s turning out it’s not just old people, Bob. Just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. It’s not just old, older—young people too, plenty of young people.”
In other portions of Woodward’s book, as reported by CNN and the Washington Post, Woodward reports that Trump was warned by top staff about the pandemic’s impact dating all the way back to January—advice he didn’t heed until it was too late. “This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency,” said Robert C. O’Brien, Trump’s national security adviser, during a January 28 Oval Office briefing, per Woodward’s reporting. “This is going to be the roughest thing you face.”
Woodward explores other subject areas with the president, such as the recent string of protests in response to systemic racism and police brutality, the Post writes:
It took almost no time for the White House to come out swinging at Woodward and his reporting. On Wednesday afternoon, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany insisted that Trump “has never lied to the American public” and reiterated that, in stating publicly that the virus might disappear, Trump was “expressing calm.” She also seemed to question Woodward’s honesty: “There’s a long litany of praise from Dr. [Anthony] Fauci and you’re referencing something he allegedly told Bob Woodward,” she told reporters. In response, one pointed out that everything Trump said to Woodward is “on tape.”