White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president’s words to the public were designed to express confidence and calm at a time of insurmountable challenges.
There are a few issues with this explanation:
- The big one is that Trump wasn't expressing confidence and calm. He was lying. Sying cases would be down to zero when he knew they wouldn't be, comparing COVID to the Flu when he knew it was much worse, etc.
- It also isn't like he was taking action behind the scenes while keeping everyone calm in public. His actions matched his words. He said COVID wasn't a threat, and he didn't treat it like one until it was too late.
- Very obviously, dealing with COVID requires that the public be informed, otherwise there is no way of containing it. So keeping people "calm" isn't the priority when that isn't what keeps them safe. Their knowing what is going on is what would have kept them safe.
The fact is, when Trump says he didn't want to create a "panic" he was talking about the markets and the shutdown measures because he saw them primarily as threats to his reelection.