President Trump, who announced overnight that he and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus, has repeatedly downplayed the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, and often contradicted public health experts and members of his own administration in their more grave warnings about the virus.
Most notably, Trump acknowledged to veteran journalist Bob Woodward that he knowingly downplayed the coronavirus, even though he knew that it was more deadly than than the seasonal flu.
“I wanted to always play it down,” the president said in a March interview, the audio recording of which was made public in September. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”
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