President Trump has changed his posture on the coronavirus repeatedly. First he spent weeks dismissing the virus, then he briefly shifted into the persona of a “wartime president” who would defeat the virus, then reverted to his original stance after advisers persuaded him social-distancing measures would cripple the economy and his reelection. Now he is back, for the time being, to taking the virus seriously.

But since Trump never admits error, he has had to cover his reversals in a series of lies. In his press conference yesterday, Trump asserted that, when he had insisted the virus had been contained and would be almost harmless, he had merely been trying to give the country “hope.” Today, when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked about those statements, Vice-President Mike Pence said, “I don’t believe the president has ever belittled the threat of the coronavirus.”

The term “Orwellian” has been cheapened over the years, but this lie absolutely fits the tradition of “we have always been at war with Eastasia.” Starting in January, Trump was insisting that he had the coronavirus fully contained. “We have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. And those people are all recuperating successfully” (January 30). He repeatedly insisted the number of people infected would go down. “I think the numbers are going to get progressively better as we go along” (February 19). “We had 12, at one point. And now they’ve gotten very much better. Many of them are fully recovered” (February 23).

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