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Trump 'admitted to downplaying' Covid-19 threat, Internet says he doesn’t deserve Nobel Peace Prize

In a series of 18 wide-ranging interviews Trump gave to noted journalist Bob Woodward from December 5, 2019, to July 21, 2020, Trump revealed, “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic”

Wednesday, September 9, came with a huge revelation. Noted journalist Bob Woodward in his new book ‘Rage’, revealed that President Donald Trump admitted he knew weeks before the first confirmed U.S. coronavirus death that the virus was dangerous, airborne, highly contagious, and "more deadly than even your strenuous flus," and that he repeatedly played it down publicly. As per ‘Rage’, on February 7, Trump told Woodward, "This is deadly stuff." 

In a series of 18 wide-ranging interviews Trump gave Woodward from December 5, 2019, to July 21, 2020, Trump revealed that he had a surprising level of detail about the threat of the virus earlier than previously known. “Pretty amazing,” Trump allegedly told Woodward, adding that the coronavirus was maybe five times "more deadly" than the flu. “I wanted to always play it down,” Trump supposedly told Woodward on March 19. “I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic.”

On February 7, two days after he was acquitted on impeachment charges by the Senate, Woodward spoke to the president. Trump divulged to Woodward that the night before he'd spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping about the virus. Woodward quotes Trump as saying, “We've got a little bit of an interesting setback with the virus going in China.”

“It goes through the air," Trump reportedly said. “That's always tougher than the touch. You don't have to touch things. Right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that's how it's passed. And so that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one. It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”

This admission stands in contrast to his public comments at the time, where he repeatedly insisted that the virus was “going to disappear”. In late February, when the U.S. had recorded around 60 cases of infection, Trump told a White House press briefing, “When you have 15 people… within a couple of days it’s going to be down to close to zero. That’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” The following day he said, “It’s going to disappear. One day -- it’s like a miracle -- it will disappear.”

“Presidents are the executive branch. There was a duty to warn. To listen, to plan, and to take care,” Woodward writes in ‘Rage’. Trump, however, as a trend, used high-profile appearances to minimize the threat and, Woodward writes, "to reassure the public they faced little risk.”

During a pre-Super Bowl interview on Fox News February 2, Trump said, "We pretty much shut it down coming in from China." Two days later during his State of the Union address, Trump made only a passing reference to the virus, promising, “my administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.”

“The virus has nothing to do with me,” Trump allegedly told Woodward in their final interview in July. “It's not my fault. It's -- China let the damn virus out.”

By March 19, when Trump told Woodward he was purposely downplaying the dangers to avoid creating a panic, he also acknowledged the threat to young people. “Just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. It's not just old, older. Young people too, plenty of young people,” Trump said. Publicly, however, Trump continued to insist on the contrary. On August 5, Trump argued that children should return to U.S. schools because they’re “almost” or “virtually immune” to the coronavirus. 

“If you look at children, children are almost -- I would almost say definitely -- but almost immune from this disease. So few -- they’ve gotten stronger. Hard to believe. I don’t know how you feel about it, but they have much stronger immune systems than we do, somehow, for this. And they don’t have a problem. They just don’t have a problem,” Trump said, adding that he would get media criticism for using the term “totally immune”. He said, “but the fact is that they are virtually immune from this problem.” 

Following these explosive revelations, social media has been abuzz with criticism and condemnation of Trump. Many have been tweeting under the hashtag #TrumpKnew. Scott Dworkin, the founder of The Democratic Coalition, wrote on Twitter, “.@realDonaldTrump-I don’t think you’re getting a Nobel Prize. #TrumpKnew.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Trump was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2021 for his role in brokering a deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, according to reports. The nomination was submitted by Christian Tybring-Gjedde, a Norwegian parliamentarian to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. "It is for his contribution for peace between Israel and the UAE. It is a unique deal," Christian Tybring-Gjedde said, adding, “No matter how Trump acts at home and what he says at press conferences, he has absolutely a chance at getting the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Another Twitter user asked, “Soooo...do you STILL get a Nobel Peace Prize if there are tapes proving you're a genocidal fiend or nah?”

One Twitter user said, "Trump is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on the same day it's proved that he knew how deadly Covid-19 was (at the outset) and deliberately played it down, causing the USA to have the highest number of deaths in the world. He deserves to be tried for genocide instead..."

One Twitter user noted, “Hey, you guys remember like, five hours ago when Trump supporters thought he was a legitimate candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize? Those were wild times. #TrumpKnew #TrumpLiedPeopleDied.”

“Only a complete Malignant, Narcissistic, Pathetic, Criminal, Traitorous Failure could receive a nomination for a Nobel Prize and be exposed on tape as a Genocidal Sociopath all within a matter of hours. RESIGN #TrumpKnew #TrumpGenocide @realDonaldTrump,” wrote another Twitter user.

‘Rage’ will be released on September 15.