Excerpt from The Trump Contagion: How Incompetence, Dishonesty, and Neglect Led to the Worst-Handled Crisis in American History. 

On August 14, 2020 Washington Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward telephoned President Donald Trump to give him a heads-up about the publication of his book, Rage. That book would draw heavily on audio-recorded interviews with Trump, including during the pandemic. This call was the 19th such interview. 

By that day, more than 176,000 Americans had died of COVID-19. The Trump Administration failed to follow its own infectious disease protocols. In violation of federal guidelines and against the wishes of local health authorities, Trump continued having large rallies without mandatory masking or distancing. These rallies became super-spreader events. 

In the call, Woodward advised Trump that COVID-19 would be a big part of the book. Trump defended his administration’s response, claiming falsely, “We’ve done better than most countries with COVID. You’re starting to see that.”

Woodward warned that Trump would not like parts of the book. Asked which parts, Woodward responded that COVID-19 is a big reality in people’s lives. Trump’s immediate response to Woodward’s reference to the reality of COVID-19 in people’s lives was to talk about the stock market: “You know the market’s coming back very strong you do know that. Did you cover that in the book?”

Woodward explained that the upcoming election would be Trump and Biden against the virus, and that tens of millions of people had been affected. Trump, in a tone of resignation, responded, “But nothing more could have been done. Nothing more could have been done. I acted early. I acted early. So we’ll see.” 

That statement, of course, was nonsense. Trump had done very little to contain the pandemic, and never pivoted to follow basic protective measures, such as mandatory masking and social distancing. 

One day after this call between Woodward and Trump, August 15, The American Journal of Medicine criticized the American response to the virus: “The U.S. government mounted a delayed and fragmented response, becoming and remaining the worldwide epicenter of the pandemic.” 

The authors pointed to the disparity between medical and public health experts and political leaders: “Masking in the United States has been politicized despite clear scientific evidence of effectiveness. Within the US government, health officials extol the virtues of masking, but political leaders hold the practice in disdain. For example, the President of the United States stated that ‘facemasks are not needed to stop COVID-19.’”

They also admonished the continued political meddling in the processes of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “Continued politicization of the CDC is causing further harm to its longstanding reputation and role as the model for disease control and prevention activities throughout the world.”

The authors also called for a unified national strategy, including social distancing, masking, and crowd avoidance. They noted that these are simple measures that would have a disproportionately powerful affect in slowing the spread and would be at least as effective as any safe vaccine that may be developed in the future. The authors called for the need to abandon what they referred to as “pandemic politics” and for a commitment to public health practices. They warned that continuing on the current path would skyrocket the number of cases and fatalities. Ominously, they also warned that the current path would potentially paralyze the healthcare delivery system. 

By August 31, more than 193,000 Americans had died from the virus. Another 23,000 would perish in September. 

Blood on His Hands

On September 9, with more than 201,000 Americans taken by the virus, Woodward’s audio recordings with Trump became public. Among the revelations were that Trump, from the beginning of the pandemic, had told Woodward:

• COVID-19 is spread in the air.

• It is caught by breathing.

• Young people can get it.

• It is far deadlier than the flu.

• It is easily transmissible.

• If you’re the wrong person and it gets you, your life is pretty much over.

• It rips you apart.

• It moves rapidly and viciously.

• It is a plague.

Trump had admitted to Woodward as early as March that he was intentionally playing down the risks. The revelations provoked outrage.

The following day Dr. Irwin Redlener, the founding director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, told The Daily Beast that if Trump had listened to his advisors and followed sound public health policies, he would have saved thousands of lives. He said of Trump: 

“He has blood on his hands… If we’d had the leadership we needed, I’m pretty sure that we’d have been under 100,000 fatalities – and probably under 50,000 if we had been aggressive from the beginning.”

Redlener went further, laying the blame squarely on the president:

“This is criminal negligence. If he didn’t have ‘sovereign immunity’ I would see this as basis for being charged with criminal negligence.”

The same Daily Beast story quoted Georgetown University public health expert Lawrence Gostin, who also laid the blame on Trump:

“It’s very clear what he should have done. He should have ramped up, immediately, our public health infrastructure with a national plan, which would have included surge capacity in hospitals for personal-protective equipment and ventilators.”

Gostin also said that Trump should have made sure that the nation had the capacity for massive testing, contact tracing, and isolation or quarantine. He should also have guided states on a national lockdown, and followed the advice of trusted, reliable experts. Gostin lamented,

“He did none of that.” 

Despite the uproar, the next day, September 11, Trump held a rally in Freeland, Michigan. 

The rally was held outside an airport hangar. The venue had a capacity of 1,700 people. Nearly 10,000 attended. There was no opportunity for social distancing, and relatively few participants wore masks. 

CNN correspondent Jim Acosta asked a group of attendees why they were not masked. One said he was not wearing a mask, 

“Because there’s no COVID. It’s a fake pandemic created to destroy the United States of America.” 

Acosta countered,  “But the President said to Bob Woodward that there is a virus, the coronavirus, and that it is deadly.”

The supporter’s response, “That’s his opinion. The truth is that the CDC says that only less than ten thousand people died from COVID. The other 190 thousand had 2.6 or 2.8 other modalities.” 

Note that the supporter claimed that there was no COVID, and two seconds later claimed that “only less than ten thousand” people had died from it. 

Acosta asked another unmasked supporter, wearing a Make America Great Again baseball cap,

“Does it worry you guys at all to be in this crowded space with all these people?”

His response: “I’m not afraid. The good Lord takes care of me. If I die, I die. We’ve got to get this country moving. What are you going to do, wear masks and stay inside for another year? Where will that get us?”

As September came to a close, 218,000 Americans had died of COVID-19. Another 25,000 would die in October.