Donald Trump doubles down on 'no panic' approach to handling pandemic

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump is acknowledging that he intentionally played down the lethal nature of the coronavirus so as to not cause panic and frenzy across the world, even as critics are excoriating him for double-talk they say led to tens of thousands of avoidable deaths.
Denunciations of “Trump lied, people died” rang across the political arena and social media as the US President and his aides and supporters struggled to reconcile his remarks on tape to journalist Bob Woodward confirming the deadly nature of the virus as early as February, while publicly assuring the American people in the weeks following that it was relatively innocuous, posed no great danger to the country, and would simply go away.

Trump defended his stance at White House briefing, arguing "the fact is, I’m a cheerleader for this country…I love our country….and I don’t want people to be frightened," adding, "We want to show confidence. We want to show strength."
While a few observers saw some merit in not wanting to panic the people, what is inexplicable is his repeated minimizing of the virus’ lethality in public, and more egregiously, not pressing for simple steps like a mask mandate and setting personal example by wearing one.
As recently as Tuesday Trump mocked a reporter for wearing a mask while asking a question at a White House briefing, sneering that he (the reporter) was trying to be "politically correct." He also held a campaign rally in North Carolina where large numbers of his supporters disdained masks.
Trump supporters meanwhile were mystified by why he agreed to talk to Woodward, who became a legend in journalism by co-authoring the Watergate exposes with Carl Bernstein, and who has since written insider accounts of almost every presidency that have not always been flattering to the incumbent. In all, Trump is said to have given 18 interviews spread over nine hours on tape, sometimes calling Woodward himself after having given him his personal cell phone number.
Among angry recrimination from Trump lackeys in the media, notably on Fox News some of whose anchors function as propagandists for the President, it was revealed that the interviews were brokered by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who apparently thought it would be a good way for Trump to cement his legacy.
That hope has now backfired with the book revealing not just Trump’s two-faced mishandling of the pandemic, but also his bizarre fan boy approach to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, his contempt for US military generals, and his eagerness to win over Woodward amid lingering doubts that the book would not come out well for him.
But the book’s disclosures about Trump’s approach to the coronavirus pandemic and the alarms he sounded on it in private compared to his public posture also raised awkward questions about why Woodward did not release the material sooner in a news story rather than wait to go public through a book -- which is titled "Rage" -- six months later.
"Bob Woodward had my quotes for many months. If he thought they were so bad or dangerous, why didn’t he immediately report them in an effort to save lives? Didn’t he have an obligation to do so?" Trump himself asked in a tweeted, before going on to answer, "No, because he knew they were good and proper answers. Calm, no panic!"
But many critics are not buying the panic argument. "'I don’t want to cause panic' says the guy who tells the country every day that Joe Biden and his Antifa army are coming to destroy your suburb," pointed out one as they pilloried the President for endangering the lives of Americans, with some going so far as to accuse him of "negligent homicide."
A few hours later Trump sought to take the spotlight away from the Woodward fiasco, tweeting, "The Democrats never even mentioned the words LAW & ORDER at their National Convention. That’s where they are coming from. If I don’t win, America’s Suburbs will be OVERRUN with Low-Income Projects, Anarchists, Agitators, Looters and, of course, 'Friendly Protesters'."