The funny thing about all this is it's been well-known that Trump downplayed the virus. Saying that there were 15 cases and it would be down to zero soon, or that it would go away on its own in April, etc.
The revelation isn't that he downplayed the virus. You're right, we all knew he was doing it. The revelation is that he did it while being clear-eyed about what the dangers were.
Trump gets a lot of benefit from being stupid. The low expectations excuse a lot of what he does. When he says things that make no sense regarding testing or masks, we all think well, he's an idiot who doesn't read, doesn't pay attention to briefings, just generally isn't interested in making decisions based on facts.
But we now know that he knew the facts. Had at least enough grasp on the situation to have made the right decisions from the start. But consciously chose to throw Americans into the fire to save the markets and his reelection prospects.
Trump tells Woodward on Feb 7 that the virus travels by air. After that he held another month and a half of rallies with people packed close together. What the fuck?
Republicans held two years of hearings over Benghazi(!) because they wanted to argue that Obama misrepresented a single terrorist attack that killed four people in order to avoid a political embarrassment. Trump has misrepresented a virus in order to avoid political pain and as a result has killed
200,000 but Republicans are like "Meh, you know, didn't want a panic."
Just so atrocious, there aren't words for it any more.