Coronavirus: Trump told son Barron situation is 'bad' despite downplaying severity of outbreak in public
While Donald Trump has repeatedly taken to social media and assured his followers that the coronavirus pandemic is not as serious as it is being made out to be, he seems to be singing a different tune behind closed doors.
The president revealed during a news conference on Monday, March 16, that he had admitted to his youngest son, 13-year-old Barron, that the crisis was worsening.
"I've spoken, actually, with my son [Barron]," he admitted, according to a report in Hollywood Life. "He said, 'How bad is this?' It's bad. It's bad."
The tone is a stark contrast to the one he's paraded in the public, where he has compared COVID-19 to the flu, suggested that the coronavirus-related stock market crash was helpful to Americans, and claimed the "Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power (it used to be greater!) to inflame the CoronaVirus situation."
The last of those he even brought up during one of his campaign rallies last month, before the outbreak saw the shut down of schools, restaurants and bars with the CDC recommending the cancelation of any mass gathering event with more than 50 people.
Trump told the crowd in South Carolina that Democrats had been "politicizing" the outbreak and that he had already endured Russia and the impeachment hoax. "This is their new hoax," he said, before assuring everyone that his administration was on top of the issue.
The president's rhetoric has shifted in the past few days as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the US has shot up to 4,661, and he is now stressing unity.
"I ask all Americans to band together and support your neighbors by not hoarding unnecessary amounts of food and essentials," he tweeted. "TOGETHER we will stay STRONG and overcome this challenge!"
The news conference also saw Trump release a two-page list of coronavirus guidelines called '15 Days to Slow the Spread' and confess that the pandemic could very well be a threat into the summer.
"Each and every one of us has a critical role to play in stopping the spread," he said. "People are talking about July, August, something like that. They could be right in that period of time where it washes through."
However, his advisor, Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was quick to jump in and state that there was no concrete timeline for when the country will be in the all-clear.
"The guidelines are over a 15 day-trial guideline," he said. "The president was saying that the trajectory of the outbreak may go until then, make sure you don't think that it's solid in stone until July."