When I first heard the recordings last night I literally gasped and kept screaming "OH MY GOD!!" I wasn't shocked that Trump knew the realities of Covid way back, but hearing him say them out loud, all the contradictions to each facet of the public message, almost as if he had some scribbled T-notes strategy written down, with truth on one side and the polar opposite on the other. And how Woodward didn't even have to use journalist ninja skills to get these details; Trump was just pouring them out with detectible interest in not only admitting them but taking pains to CONVINCE Woodward of them, beginning with relaying his conversation with Xi (cuz you know, that's what a President does; tells journalists what transpired in private phone calls with hostile-ish foreign leaders).

But it wasn't MY ears getting red with shock.....I immediately started hearing them as a Trump-humper, one of the bazillion I've seen comment on social media, about how pointless masks are "Just wash your hands!", how Covid is no worse than the flu, how schools need to reopen because young people aren't at risk. The last bit I heard was the "playing it down" part. That made me literally cover my gaping mouth with both hands, hearing him freely admit that he was PLAYING the public all along.

It was especially sickening how he said "I like" doing it.

I don't know why I haven't heard anyone discuss that specific word choice. It's a bizarre way to put it; I can't wrap my head around it. Did he mean "like" as in "I like heroes who WEREN'T captured", because his Narcissheimers Syndrome a$$ doesn't even possess utility of a vocabulary word as basic as "prefer," .......or was he revealing true sadism, that he literally ENJOYS manipulating people, just for its' own sake, consequences be danged. The bit about not wanting to create a panic was obviously not about people's feelings but market shares...still, you could hear him tacking it onto his talk of liking what he was doing, as if realizing he should offer SOME human-sounding rationale for his sadism.

I know, I know, we've thought SO MANY Trump revelations would be straw that broke the Trump-humpers' humps, but if hearing these tapes just a couple days after the stuff about enlisted people being suckers.....however many of them are still unfazed, well I guess the only test left would be for him to literally shoot one on 5th Avenue and see if their face acknowledges the betrayal, or if their hand reflexively hides the wound while they say "I understand, Sir. But you know the fake news is going to take this out of context."