Bob Woodward, Donald Trump, and the COVID-19 Pandemic. What happened? Summary Author and journalist Bob Woodward, who has been writing a book about the Trump presidency, released excerpts yesterday from an interview in which Donald Trump called coronavirus “deadly” and said that he wanted to “play it down” to prevent panic. Publicly, Donald Trump compared the virus to the common flu and publicly stated that the United States would have “close to zero” cases. Bob Woodward has written previous tell-alls on several Washington big wigs including …