Washington (CNN) The somber President Donald Trump of Monday's press conference bore little resemblance to the Trump who had relentlessly played down the coronavirus over the previous two months.

Trump was asked Tuesday about his change in tone. He responded by claiming that his tone hadn't changed much at all.

"I mean, I have seen that, where people actually liked it. But I didn't feel different," he said at a White House press briefing. "I've always known, this is a real -- this is a real -- this is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic. All you had to do was look at other countries...no, I've always viewed it as very serious. It was no difference yesterday from days before. I feel the tone is similar, but some people said it wasn't."

This was another of Trump's brazen attempts to rewrite a history that played out in public view.

Facts First: From January until last week, Trump consistently minimized the risk the coronavirus posed to the country. He : From January until last week, Trump consistently minimized the risk the coronavirus posed to the country. He claimed to have the virus under "control," that the number of US cases would go " down, not up ," that the virus might " disappear " through a "miracle" or something of the sort, that the virus might well vanish by April with the warmer weather, that the media and Democrats were overhyping the situation, and that "this is their new hoax ," leaving it unclear whether he was calling the virus itself a hoax. (He later said he was talking about Democrats' coronavirus-related criticism, not the virus.)