WASHINGTON • US President Donald Trump flooded the Fox News airwaves and launched a Twitter rant on Thursday in an attempt to ride out damage from interviews he gave to journalist Bob Woodward in the bombshell new book Rage.
First there was a late Wednesday night call-in with his friend, Fox News personality Sean Hannity.
Early on Thursday, he followed up with a Fox News Radio interview focused on his nomination by a right-wing member of Norway's Parliament for the Nobel Peace Prize, something he called "a great thing for our country".
Later in the day, there was a hastily organised White House press conference, during which Mr Trump denied lying to Americans about the severity of the coronavirus outbreak.
And then there were the tweets - dozens fired in wildly random directions, from extolling the "good health" of North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un to criticising Mr Woodward.
Despite the bluster, Mr Trump's taped admission to Mr Woodward - that he had played down the coronavirus crisis in public while being aware of the unique danger from the disease - has set off alarm bells less than eight weeks before election day on Nov 3.
Rage is filled with startling episodes, including the assessment by Mr Trump's then director of national intelligence Dan Coats that the President "doesn't know the difference between the truth and a lie".
But most of the attention is on the segments in which Mr Trump candidly discusses the coronavirus pandemic - which has by now killed almost 200,000 Americans.
Despite openly describing to Mr Woodward the scary characteristics of the then unknown virus, Mr Trump said: "I wanted to always play it down."
Although he went on to explain that he wanted to avoid causing panic, his acknowledgement that he had deliberately failed to tell the country the unvarnished truth has started a firestorm.
"He knew how deadly it was," Mr Trump's Democratic challenger Joe Biden said on Wednesday. "He lied to the American people. He knowingly and willingly lied about the threat it posed to the country for months."
Asked at Thursday's White House press conference "Why did you lie to the American people?", Mr Trump responded: "I didn't lie."
The Republican, who is down in the polls against Mr Biden and faces overwhelming disapproval from Americans over his handling of the coronavirus crisis, insisted that he had softened the dangers in public so as to preserve calm.
"I don't want to jump up and down and start screaming 'Death! Death!'" he argued.
Mr Trump usually fights criticism by blaming what he calls "the fake news" and claiming that unnamed sources commonly used in White House reporting do not exist.
But shooting the messenger will not work in the case of Rage.
The shocking revelations in the book rely mostly on Mr Trump himself and Mr Woodward - famous for bringing down president Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal - has published his recordings.
In one dig at Mr Woodward on Thursday, Mr Trump tweeted that if the reporter thought that the quotes were "so bad or dangerous, why didn't he immediately report them in an effort to save lives?"
"Because he knew they were good and proper answers. Calm, no panic!" Mr Trump argued.
Why Mr Trump would have granted Mr Woodward so much access in an election year, however, is a question many in Washington are asking. The reporter managed to secure 18 interviews with the President and was entirely open about them being put on tape.
According to White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Mr Trump went ahead "because he is the most transparent president in history".
Mr Trump, who has a lifetime of experience in salesmanship and performing on television, has indeed set a new record for his unprecedented number of press conferences and impromptu question-and-answer sessions.
But the performances often leave his own staff scrambling in damage limitation mode, like when he mused at a press conference about the possible benefits of injecting Covid-19 patients with bleach.
In the final run before the Nov 3 election, aides and allies are again gritting their teeth.
Mr Karl Rove, the Republican campaign mastermind in the George W. Bush era, had this warning for Mr Trump: "If the President isn't focused... the occupant of the Oval Office is set to change."
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
More revelations from the book
TRUMP'S CONTENTIOUS PHONE CALL WITH TRADE BODY CHIEF
US President Donald Trump threatened to withdraw the United States from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) during a contentious phone call with the group's then leader, according to journalist Bob Woodward's new book Rage.
Mr Trump demanded that Mr Roberto Azevedo designate the US a "developing nation" like China and India in order to get more favourable trading terms.
When Mr Azevedo objected, Mr Trump said: "Here's what I'm doing: I'm pulling out of the World Trade Organisation."
Mr Azevedo resigned from his position in May, well before his term was set to end next year, saying the group's work had ground to a halt. The appointment of judges to the WTO's appeals panel was halted in December after the US blocked all nominations and allowed members' terms to expire, hampering the body's ability to resolve trade disputes.
N. KOREA'S KIM SHOWED OFF UNCLE'S HEADLESS BODY
The headless body of Mr Kim Jong Un's executed uncle was displayed to senior North Korean officials, Mr Trump said.
Jang Song Thaek, the North Korean leader's uncle by marriage and a hugely powerful figure within the regime, was purged for treason and corruption in 2013, in what was widely seen as Mr Kim asserting his authority.
Mr Kim "tells me everything. Told me everything", Mr Trump told Mr Woodward in the book.
"He killed his uncle and he put the body right in the steps," Mr Trump said. "And the head was cut, sitting on the chest."
North Korea has never officially stated how Jang was executed.
The new book also unveils letters between the two leaders, in which Mr Kim deployed flattery and florid prose in his diplomatic courtship of Mr Trump.
"Even now I cannot forget that moment of history when I firmly held Your Excellency's hand at the beautiful and sacred location as the whole world watched with great interest and hope to relive the honour of that day," Mr Kim wrote to Mr Trump on Christmas Day 2018, following their first meeting in Singapore.
TRUMP BOASTED OF HELPING SAUDI PRINCE IN MURDER CASE
Mr Trump boasted that he saved Saudi Arabia's crown prince from greater scrutiny over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
He defended Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the gruesome murder inside a Saudi consulate of Mr Khashoggi, a US-based critic of the prince's rule.
"I saved his ass. I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop," Mr Trump said. "He will always say that he didn't do it. He says that to everybody, and frankly I'm happy that he says that... He's never said he did it."
Mr Khashoggi's killing triggered an uproar among US lawmakers but the Trump administration has stood by Saudi Arabia.
TRUMP MAY HAVE DISCLOSED SECRET NUCLEAR WEAPON
Mr Trump boasted of a potentially nuclear weapons system that "nobody's ever had", appearing to disclose top-secret defence information in one of the on-the-record interviews he gave Mr Woodward.
Such a revelation, if true, could shake up great power politics and inflame the arms race.
"I have built a nucle-, a weap-, I have built a weapons system, weapons system, that nobody's ever had in this country before," Mr Trump said.
"We have stuff that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and (Chinese President) Xi (Jinping) have never heard about before... What we have is incredible."
Mr Woodward said he had confirmed separately with sources that the US indeed has a new secret weapon, but did not say whether it was nuclear or not.
BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
