“Revelations from the Woodward book emerged just as Trump’s campaign was beginning to feel that the virus was receding from public view. The president himself has been thumbing his nose at public health experts’ warning against the sort of large gatherings — with few people wearing masks — that his campaign has been staging around the country. For all of that, Trump has faced devastating revelations of his own creation before and survived them. They stretch back to his 2015 comments questioning the heroism of Sen. John McCain, a decorated Vietnam prisoner of war, or the notorious ‘Access Hollywood’ tape that emerged just before the 2016 election in which Trump described sexually assaulting women.”

“On Wednesday, Trump didn’t deny his remarks playing down the virus, he sought to justify them. ‘The fact is I’m a cheerleader for this country. I love our country and I don’t want people to be frightened. I don’t want to create panic,’ Trump told reporters. ‘Certainly, I’m not going to drive this country or the world into a frenzy. We want to show confidence. We want to show strength.’ Yet Trump’s own explanation suggested he was steering people away from the reality of the coming storm. Woodward’s account details dire warnings from top Trump national security officials to the president in late January that the virus that causes COVID-19 could be as bad as the devastating influenza pandemic of 1918” – AP.