He all but said he did this and then explained in detail why he did it in a series of nationally televised press conferences, I don't get how this has all been memory holed and not just at the WH https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing-15/ https://twitter.com/samstein/status/1303743219281416192

This is all exactly what he said, almost word for word, the last time he admitted to doing this on national television. This really happened before! You didn't imagine it! https://twitter.com/EliStokols/status/1303784015284109314

When he first did this in March, it was interpreted less as "Trump confesses to downplaying panic" and more as "Trump invents post hoc excuse to claim he took pandemic seriously" https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/us/politics/trump-coronavirus.html

But once everyone realized the more Woodward-esque implication if you took him at his word, reporters asked him about it repeatedly and he gave the same answer about being a "cheerleader" for the country and not wanting to cause a panic https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-coronavirus-cheerleader_n_5e8d0872c5b6e1a2e0fb7aeb?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAIwb6ztQbCfL6bwM9uEfICpUVFYBZOFKntv1WyRttDVGz8zTEfq-hgBQUrkFDKDHRAO8H5Mhu1bfdwFOVsc-Nw09jeFEb9hAdu4kK1Ry64Sglo2rEJ5v5-Ap6C4GlsLdvv_WH31dmlBEUqE1NmnDkUReaUJv3jSQGIZBU22Y7wlF