On Sunday, Yamiche Alcindor, a reporter for PBS, posed President Trump’s own words to him. “You’ve said repeatedly that you think that some of the equipment that governors are requesting, they don’t actually need. You said New York might need –”

Trump interrupted her twice: “I didn’t say that.” Alcindor stood her ground: “You said it on Sean Hannity’s, Fox News.” Then Trump a falsehood: “I didn’t say – come on. Come on.”

Yesterday, however, the president’s tone had changed.

 When President Trump was asked how many Americans are currently projected to lose their life due to the virus given even after current efforts to mitigate the worst effects of the pandemic, he said it was better if his medical experts responded.

According to current projections, the number of deaths is between 100,000 and 200,000. On 15 April, for instance, 2,214 Americans are expected to die.

“No-one is denying that we’re going through a very, very difficult time,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “That’s what it is.“

The president tried to frame this news as a positive outcome, highlighting that the projections for US casualties if the government hadn’t taken any steps to counter the disease were in the millions.

“A lot of people were saying think of it as the flu, but it’s not the flu,” he said. “It’s vicious.”

This was a drastic shift for the president who himself has compared the virus to the flu in the past, “We lose thousands of people a year to the flu,” he said then. “We never turn the country off.“

 In a show of solemnity, he mentioned a friend who was hospitalized with the virus – “a little older, and he’s heavy, but he’s a tough person” – only to discover that he was now in a coma.

“I spoke to some of my friends, and they can’t believe what they’re seeing,” he said.

“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead,” a grave President Trump said in his Tuesday afternoon press briefing.