In a series of interviews with journalist Bob Woodward, Donald Trump admitted that earlier this year he received detailed information about the threat of the new coronavirus and knew that it was about five times “more deadly” than the flu.
“This virus is deadly,” the US president told the journalist on February 7, although in the following months he has always devalued Covid-19, ensuring that the virus “would disappear” and everything would “go well”.
In the book entitled “Rage” (“Raiva”, in Portuguese), to which the CNN had access, Woodward published the interviews with Donald Trump and describes him as a president who has betrayed the people’s trust and his most fundamental responsibilities.
“We just breathe air and that is how it is transmitted,” Trump told the journalist. “So it is a very complicated virus, it is very delicate,” he added. However, the image that Trump was showing to the public was very different.
On January 22, asked by CNBC about whether the pandemic was a cause for concern, Trump replied: “No, not at all. We have everything under control. Everything will work out”. Later, on February 10, the American president predicted that in April, “when it gets a little warmer, [o vírus] miraculously disappears ”and on the 26th of the same month, when commenting on the first cases of infection registered in the country, Trump said:“ Soon we will be with just five people. And we may be with just one or two people in the next few days. So, we were very lucky ”.
Trump justified to the journalist that he “always wanted to minimize the gravity” of the situation. “I still like to minimize it, because I don’t want to panic,” added the president in an interview on March 19, even after declaring a national emergency days earlier due to the pandemic.
Only in mid-March, after declaring a state of emergency, did Trump publicly admit that he always thought “it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic”. However, the lack of measures to combat the virus, from the increase in testing capacity, the distribution of protective equipment to health professionals and the mandatory use of a mask, has led the USA to the first place on the list of most affected by the pandemic, with more than 180,000 dead and six million infected.
Experts believe that, instead of “minimizing gravity”, if Trump had acted in advance by enacting strict confinement and calling for wearing masks and complying with hygiene standards, thousands of American lives could have been saved.
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“The virus has nothing to do with me”
In the book – due to be released on September 15 – journalist Woodward also reveals new details about the warnings that Trump received and which he mostly ignored.
On January 28, national security adviser Robert O’Brien already warned Trump that SARS-CoV-2 would be “the biggest threat to national security” under his presidency. However, Trump continued to publicly devalue the Covid-19 risk.
In May, Woodward asked the American president if he remembered this same warning from his adviser. “No, I don’t remember,” replied Trump.
Even ignoring all warnings about the dangers of infection by Covid-19, Trump has not failed to take full credit for fighting the pandemic in the country, always highlighting his “excellent job”.
In his last interview in late July, Trump put the responsibility for the pandemic back in China. “The virus has nothing to do with me,” Trump told the journalist. “It’s not my fault. China let the damn virus out ”, stressed.
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“Trump is the wrong man for the job”
Trump’s conscious minimization of the severity of the new coronavirus is just one of many revelations in the book “Rage”. Woodward also shares opinions of several former and current Donald Trump advisers on the president himself. Former US Defense Secretary James Mattis is said to have dubbed Trump “dangerous” and “incompetent”. According to Mattis, Trump “has no moral compass” and made foreign policy decisions that showed opponents “how to destroy America”.
The book also reveals that after leaving the Government, Mattis discussed with the former director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, whether they should proceed with a “collective action” to speak publicly against Trump.
Woodward also reveals harsh assessments by current officials of Trump’s policy on the pandemic. Among them is Anthony Fauci, the White House’s leading infectious disease specialist, who has not spared criticism of the American president over the past few months. Fauci is quoted in the book as saying that Trump was “aimless” and that his “attention span is like a negative number”. “Your only goal is to be re-elected”, said Fauci, according to Woodward.
After his 18 interviews with the American president, Woodward concludes that Trump is like “dynamite behind the door” and finishes his book with the certainty that “he is the wrong man for the job”.
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