DONALD TRUMP has sensationally admitted that he tried to downplay how serious the coronavirus pandemic was in an attempt to prevent the American public from panicking.
Audio recordings, which date back to February this year, were released this week which feature the President speaking about the virus.
Mr Trump can be heard saying: "This is deadly stuff".
"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 flu."
In contrast, Trump's public message was that Covid-19 was no more of a threat than the common flu.
He was pressed on the recordings on Wednesday, and Trump admitted that he chose to downplay the seriousness of the virus because he didn't want to frighten people.
"I'm a cheerleader for this country. I love this country. I don't want people to be frightened. I don’t want to create panic," he told reporters.
"Certainly I'm not going to drive this country or the world into a frenzy. We want to show confidence. We want to show strength, we want to show strength as a nation. That's what I’ve done.
"Leadership is about confidence. Confidence is confidence in our country."
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended Trump's decision to convey the seriousness of the virus in private, but downplay it in public.
"The president was expressing calm. The president was hopeful that we would be able to manage this and handle it in a way that we can make it go away as quickly as possible," she said.
"The president rose to the occasion and did just that."
