“I’ve always wanted to downplay it. I still like to downplay it, because I don’t want to create a panic,” Trump told Woodward in a March 19 telephone interview, one of 18 he gave the Washington chronicler in December. and January for his book Rage, excerpts from which was released today.
In an earlier phone call on February 7, Trump told Woodward: “You just breathe the air and that’s how it happens… And that’s very complicated. That is very delicate. It is also more deadly than even his intense flu. ”
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“This is deadly,” he repeats for emphasis.
But just a week earlier, on January 30, Trump had told the American people that the pandemic was “very well controlled … We have very few problems in this country right now: five. And all of those people are recovering with success”.
Woodward writes in the book, due out next week, that “Trump never seemed willing to fully mobilize the federal government and seemed to continually push problems to the states,” and “there was no actual management theory of the case.” . or how to organize a massive company to deal with one of the most complex emergencies the United States has ever faced. ”
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He quotes Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, as saying that Trump was “rudderless,” his “attention span is like a negative number” and his sole purpose is to be re-elected.
According to Woodward, Trump was informed about the virus as early as Jan. 20 at a briefing in the Oval Office in which National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien warned him: “This will be the biggest security threat. national that will face in his presidency. to be the hardest thing that you face “. His deputy Matthew Pottinger warned the president that the threat was similar to the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed 50 million people worldwide.
However, Trump downplays the virus so as not to create panic.
The book, presented by the Washington Post, has other explosive revelations, including Trump telling his business adviser Peter Navarro, “… my fucking generals are a bunch of jerks. They care more about their alliances than they do about trade deals.” .
According to the Post, Trump shared with Woodward visceral reactions towards several prominent Democrats of color, including Kamala Harris of California. Watching her quietly and quietly watch him deliver his State of the Union address, Trump commented, “Hate! Look at the hate! Look at the hate!”
He also despised Barack Obama, telling Woodward that he was inclined to refer to him by his first and middle names, “Barack Hussein,” and calling him overrated.
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