In a book published by journalist Bob Woodward it was revealed that the president knew that the corona virus was deadly - but continued to underestimate its severity in public • Trump recorded: "Do not want to cause panic"
US President Donald Trump // Photo: Reuters
Shaky exposure in the United States: The President of the United States told a senior journalist that he is aware of the severity of the corona virus but chooses to downplay it, so as not to cause unnecessary panic, as the virus spreads in the country.
The remarks were revealed in a recording unveiled by the news network Filter, and were recorded by Washington Post editor Bob Woodwood, the journalist behind the Watergate affair and one of the world's most respected professionals, during his talks with the White House president.
The remarks were made in a book published by the journalist about Trump's tenure and was called "Rage."
In the first recorded conversation between the two, held in February, the president told the veteran journalist that "you just breathe the air and that's how it goes. It's an elusive, very delicate problem. It's more deadly than a really hard flu," the president said, adding "it's deadly."
At the time, the president had publicly claimed that it was a flu-like virus and that the disease would disappear within a few months.
But on March 19, the president admitted to Woodward that he was deliberately underestimating the plague.
"I kept wanting to underestimate the severity of it. I still underestimate the severity of it, because I do not want to create panic."
If you take it for granted, Trump understood the severity of the virus, which has so far killed 194,473 American civilians, more than double the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War.
This serves as ammunition for the president's critics, who have argued that his handling of the crisis has been disastrous since its inception.
White House spokeswoman Kylie McKinney responded to reports that she had told the White House media that "the president has not misled the American public. He has never lied to the public."