New Woodward tape reveals Trump ‘bailed’ on meeting over sneeze while telling public virus was ‘past its peak’

Bob Woodward has released another controversial recording of a conversation with Donald Trump in which the president said he bailed out of a meeting in April after a person sneezed, around the same time he was telling the American public the virus was “past its peak”.

The Washington Post journalist revealed the excerpt — from just one of the 18 tapes recorded for his upcoming book, Rage — during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

In the 13 April recording, Mr Trump says that coronavirus is "so easily transmissible, you wouldn’t believe it,” before going on to tell Mr Woodward an anecdote to illustrate his point.

“I was in the White House a couple of days ago, meeting with 10 people in the Oval Office, and a guy sneezed ― innocently, not a horrible, you know just a sneeze. The entire room bailed out, OK? Including me, by the way," Mr Trump said.

The White House did not immediately respond to The Independent’s request for comment regarding the recording.

Only days after the date of the recording on 15 April the president said during a press conference that the virus was “past its peak” and began paving the way for gradual reopening of states amidst the pandemic.  

At the time, the president called the latest data "encouraging", saying the numbers have "put us in a very strong position to finalise guidelines for states on reopening the country".

On 13 April, deaths from the virus in the country had just surpassed 23,000. This week the country is nearing a death toll of 200,000.

Mr Woodward went on to speculate if someone were to sneeze in the front row at the president’s indoor rally in Nevada over the weekend whether he would have staged a similar exit.

The president has faced intense criticism following the indoor campaign event in Henderson, during which a large proportion of attendees were not social distancing or wearing masks.

Mr Trump has also faced severe backlash since the publication of other audio recordings from Rage in the past week, most notably for claims that he admitted that he knew the coronavirus pandemic was far more serious than he let on to the public and concealed the virus’ true dangers.

“You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” the president said during the phone call with Mr Woodward. “And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu.”

Last Wednesday, Mr Trump admitted that he did downplay the seriousness of the virus, but only in an attempt “to reduce panic.”

Mr Trump said he told Mr Woodward one thing and the American people another because being honest in public would mean “you’re going to have bigger problems.”

“I don’t want people to be frightened,” he said. “We want to show confidence, we want to show strength.”

The US has now recorded 6.59 million cases of the novel coronavirus since the outbreak began in the country in March.