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US President Donald Trump was aware of the risks associated with the coronavirus as early as the first months of the year and has deliberately downplayed the consequences by describing it as a common flu. This we do not know from a news leak, nor are they accusations made against him by his opponents: he himself told Bob Woodward, famous and respected journalist from the Washington Post who in the 1970s investigated the Watergate affair with Carl Bernstein. Woodward’s new book is called Rage and it has not yet been published, but several newspapers and televisions have published some notable passages, reproducing parts of the 18 interviews that Woodward did with Trump from December 2019 to July 2020 and containing statements on the pandemic, on racism and other topics .
Since February, Trump had tried to minimize the severity of COVID-19, comparing it to the seasonal flu and downplaying the importance of anti-contagion measures. He had harshly criticized state-decided lockdowns, mocked those wearing the masks for months, gave the alarmist to Anthony Fauci, the White House’s top consultant on infectious diseases, promoted alleged and discredited miracle therapies, and repeated that the virus will go away on its own. . He insisted on the need to reduce the number of tests carried out because for many, COVID-19 is practically a cold. However, from Trump’s own interviews with Woodward, a completely different story emerges.
In February, Trump told Woodward he knew how dangerous the virus was – airborne, highly contagious, and much “deadlier than a strong flu.” Trump called the pandemic “a very complicated and very sensitive issue”: “It is more deadly than the most serious flu.” It’s deadly. ‘ The coronavirus, he added, “has a mortality rate of 5 percent compared to 1, or even less, for the other flu.” Woodward also says that national security adviser Robert O’Brien informed Trump on January 28 that the virus would be the biggest threat to his presidency. Trump told Woodward that he did not remember that warning.
In an interview on March 19, Trump admitted that he had always wanted to downplay the pandemic: “And I still prefer to belittle, because I don’t want to create panic.” After the anticipations, White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany explained that Trump has never lied, but simply wanted to reassure Americans: “When faced with very difficult challenges, it is important to express a sense of confidence and calm.”
Woodward’s book also contains excerpts from the letters between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, out of which emerges a “deep and special friendship” that will function “like a magical force”; reports statements about Trump’s low esteem for his predecessor Barack Obama, deemed “unintelligent” and “a bad speaker,” and other statements about racism in the United States: Trump says he has done more for African Americans than anyone another president besides Abraham Lincoln also explains that he “does not love” the black community. the Washington Post finally cites an interview in which Woodward asks the president if there is a problem of systemic racism in the United States and he, having clarified that these problems exist everywhere, adds that in the United States they are less serious than in other places.
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