At one point he even admitted that he downplayed the pandemic because he "didn't want to cause panic." Translated that meant he didn't want the markets to crash. Which they did anyways. We were already in a recession when the virus began to spread and countries and states began to shut down public venues. Remember how Trump tried to deny government medical supplies like PPE, ventilators, and so on to Blue states? Ours was one of them.
Interestingly but not surprising, the
Red states tended to have the highest death rates per capita. Ours (MI) was one of the lowest ones. When you listen to Trump, you die.