Woodward Tapes Reveal Trump Knew COVID Danger Early

The Recordings

On September 9, 2020, CNN and The Washington Post published excerpts from journalist Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book, “Rage,” which included audio recordings of 18 on-the-record interviews Woodward conducted with Trump between December 2019 and July 2020. The most explosive revelations concerned Trump’s private understanding of COVID-19. In a recorded call on February 7, 2020, Trump told Woodward that the coronavirus was “deadly stuff” and far more dangerous than the flu. “This is deadly stuff,” Trump said. “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.”

The Deliberate Downplaying

The recordings stood in stark contrast to Trump’s public statements during the same period. While privately telling Woodward the virus was five times more deadly than the flu and airborne, Trump was publicly calling it no worse than the seasonal flu, predicting it would “disappear” with warm weather, and opposing aggressive public health measures. In a March 19 interview with Woodward, Trump explicitly acknowledged the strategy: “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”

Public Reaction

The revelation that Trump had knowingly misled the American public about a virus that would go on to kill hundreds of thousands of people provoked outrage. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden called Trump’s actions “a life-and-death betrayal of the American people.” Medical professionals expressed fury that the president had possessed accurate information about the virus’s severity and transmission while publicly undermining the very precautions that could have saved lives. By the time the Woodward recordings became public, more than 190,000 Americans had died from COVID-19.

Trump’s Defense

Trump defended his actions by saying he did not want to “create a panic” and that a president must show calm leadership. Critics argued that the distinction between preventing panic and deliberately misleading the public about a mortal threat was not a legitimate one — that informed citizens could have taken precautions earlier and that state and local leaders could have acted sooner with clearer federal guidance. The Woodward tapes became a central issue in the final weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign, crystallizing the argument that Trump had prioritized his political fortunes over the lives of Americans.