Nick Allen: Why Trump only has himself to blame for Bob Woodward's bombshell new book

In an astonishing admission, Donald Trump told Bob Woodward he deliberately "played down" the threat of the virus publicly in February and March. Photo / AP

Opinion

COMMENT:

What did the president know about the coronavirus and when did he know it?

Thanks to a new book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward it has been revealed that he knew more than he told the public.

In an astonishing admission Donald Trump told Woodward he deliberately "played down" the threat of the virus publicly in February and March because he didn't want to cause a "panic".

Joe Biden has accused him of a "life-and-death betrayal of the American people" which was "beyond despicable".

Trump is not on a good run. He was already reeling from allegations - which he vehemently refutes - that he called US soldiers "suckers" and "losers".

Now, this latest brouhaha has engulfed him, putting his campaign on the back foot with less than two months to the election.

He had wanted to focus on law and order, but the pandemic is more of an albatross around his neck than ever.

For Republicans it is particularly frustrating because the suggestion that Trump misled the public over coronavirus is entirely of his own making.

Why on Earth, they ask, did he sit down with Woodward for 18 - yes eighteen - interviews?

Woodward, and his Washington Post colleague Carl Bernstein, brought down Richard Nixon without even speaking to him once.

At one point Woodward actually asked Trump why he was getting so much time when there was a health crisis going on.

Trump is dismissing the book, titled "Rage", as a political hit job.

But, unlike Watergate, Woodward does not rely on anonymous sources. The words are Trump's. And they are on tape. The president is hoist with his own petard.

Most puzzling of all is that, from listening to the recordings Woodward made, it seems Trump had no idea what he was saying would be controversial, or that the public might have wanted to know what he knew.

Perhaps his most damaging comment relating to the virus came in an interview on March 19. Woodward asked him to point to a "pivotal moment" when he realised the "gravity" of the threat.

Trump responded: "I think Bob, to be honest with you, I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I don't want to create a panic."

The sound of Woodward's jaw hitting the floor is almost audible.

Trump does not say on the tape what kind of "panic" he means. But Kayleigh McEnany, his press secretary, later suggested he meant runs on grocery stores, and chaos on the stock market.

This cover image of upcoming book 'Rage' by Bob Woodward. Photo / AP

As usual when in a corner Trump has re-iterated, rather than backtracked from, a controversial position. He said he "played down" the virus because he hadn't wanted to "scare everybody" and put the country in a "frenzy".

Asked if he had misled the public, he responded: "If you said in order to reduce panic, perhaps that's so."

He has not addressed the obvious next question of whether it is right for a president to mislead the public when facing a crisis. People are drawing their own conclusions.

Meanwhile, Woodward himself is now receiving criticism for not revealing what he learned earlier.

Critics - including other journalists - have suggested that, if the president told him the virus was more serious than the public knew, he should have immediately told everyone, rather than saving the information for a book.

Woodward rejected that argument, saying: "The biggest problem I had, which is always a problem with Trump, is I didn't know if it was true."

As to why Trump chose Woodward to unburden his inner thoughts to, it appears he was trying to change how he was portrayed in the author's previous book, called "Fear".

White House communications experts had rejected Woodward's requests to speak to the president for that book. They knew no good could come of it.

But Trump was incensed they hadn't even let him know about the requests. When Woodward asked again for "Rage" Trump dived in, hoping he could help shape the author's narrative. There was a tour of the Oval Office for Woodward and a gift.

At one point the president told Woodward: "It would be an honour to get a good book from you. [But] You're probably going to screw me."

In the end, sadly for Trump, he may have done that to himself.

- Daily Telegraph UK