A new book by journalist Bob Woodward details how President Donald Trump acknowledged in private the severity of the coronavirus pandemic while publicly — and deliberately — minimizing the threat. By misleading Americans into believing the pandemic would soon disappear and that precautions weren't necessary, Trump turned a manageable pandemic into an out-of-control monster that continues to wreak medical and economic havoc today.

Trump conducted 18 interviews with Woodward in preparation for his upcoming book, "Rage." The Washington Post and CNN received advanced copies.

In February, as the pandemic was spreading in China but had only infected 15 people in the United States, Trump told Woodward in recorded interviews that the virus was easily spread — "You just breathe the air and that's how it's passed" — and was perhaps five times more deadly than the flu, which Trump acknowledged kills 25,000 or more Americans per year. In a Jan. 28 top secret briefing, national security adviser Robert O'Brien warned Trump that the pandemic would be the "biggest national security threat" of his presidency.

Yet Trump publicly minimized the risks and told Americans that the virus was "going to disappear." He made fun of masks, including when former Vice President Joe Biden first appeared in public wearing one. He celebrated supporters who showed up at rallies without masks and went out of his way to convey a sense of disregard for a virus that has now infected 6.3 million and killed nearly 190,000.

In short, Trump has massive amounts of blood on his hands.

"I wanted to always play it down," Trump told Woodward on March 19. "I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic." One mark of a competent leader is his or her ability to communicate the severity of an emergency without creating a panic, as President George W. Bush did after the 9/11 attacks. A president who publicly shrugs off the danger — even to the point of lying — is someone who has no business in office.

Trump acknowledged to Woodward on March 19 that he knew of "startling facts" indicating that "plenty of young people" were endangered by the coronavirus. Yet publicly he suggested, including as recently as last month, that children were "almost immune" from the virus. He demanded that schools reopen and even threatened retaliation against those that didn't.

Against that backdrop, various former administration officials expressed to Woodward, on the record, their fears that Trump was dangerously incompetent. His own son-in-law, Jared Kushner, cited "Alice in Wonderland" as the key to understanding Trump.

The economy is in ruins. The pandemic remains out of control. With eight weeks remaining before the Nov. 3 election, what more do voters need to be convinced that this Mad Hatter must be sent packing?

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