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#NoPanic trends as Trump questions Bob Woodward for not releasing tapes of him calling Covid-19 'deadly' sooner

The president's tweet defending himself backfired as many Twitter users picked the last two words of his tweets 'no panic', and used them to slam the Republican

Minutes after President Donald Trump responded to comments made by author Bob Woodward in his new book on the Republican, "#NoPanic" began trending on social media. Woodward, in his bombshell book 'Rage,' quotes Trump admitting that he downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic in the early stages of the spread to the American people and privately referred to the virus as "deadly." 

Amid heavy backlash at the president over Woodward's claims, Trump took to Twitter on Thursday, September 10, to defend himself, writing: "Bob Woodward had my quotes for many months. If he thought they were so bad or dangerous, why didn’t he immediately report them in an effort to save lives? Didn’t he have an obligation to do so? No, because he knew they were good and proper answers. Calm, no panic!"

Woodward wrote that Trump, in a phone conversation with him in February, described the coronavirus as "deadly ... more deadly than even your strenuous flu." However, a month later, the president told the author: "Well, I think Bob, really 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 president's tweet, however, backfired as many Twitter users picked the last two words of his tweets "no panic," and used them to slam the Republican. One user wrote: "China downplayed the coronavirus so that there would be no panic. They should be applauded for this, not punished or degraded. President Xi should win the Nobel Peace prize for his mastery of downplay. Right, Republicans?"

Another wrote: "Weird, just a day after we learned that trump was HIDING how deadly COVID-19 was to children, he's telling us "no panic" and get your kids back into schools. He really wants us DEAD."

A third compared the Trump administration to the Nazis: "The Nazis disguised the extermination chambers as showers, so that when they herded the Jews inside there would be calm, no panic."

"A metaphor on "not panicking people": No panic: "Ok, folks there's a fire in the building. We're safe right now, but we need to head outside before it spreads." What Trump did: "Tiny sparks. Stay here. Bob, Put that politically correct extinguisher away! Folks outside, come in!" wrote another.

One user wrote that the defensive tweet was to save his reelection bid, "Remember above all else, Trump didn't want to spook the markets as the economy was his ticket to reelection. So when you hear him talking about keeping calm and no panic, he's not referring to our lives, he just meant his."

Ever since the excerpts from Woodward's book were released on Wednesday, September 9, the author has also received criticism for not coming forward with the Trump tapes before as many claimed that the recordings could have saved lives. 

"How differently might Trump's supporters have acted if — this whole time — they knew that he knew COVID was a serious threat?" Jessica Huseman, a reporter for ProPublica tweeted. "Woodward could have made that happen in February."