Coronavirus: Trump admits to ‘playing down’ COVID-19 threat in taped Woodward interviews

U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged back in March that he was deliberately playing down the threat of COVID-19, even as he publicly claimed that the coronavirus would “disappear” several times over the following days, weeks and months. “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I don’t want to create a panic,” Trump told veteran journalist Bob Woodward in an interview recorded on March 19.