Trump Slammed for Fearmongering Tweet About the Suburbs After Claiming He Downplayed Virus to Avoid 'Panic'

It seems as though the furor over President Trump's admitted dishonesty about the pandemic just might be getting to him.

This morning, Trump fired off some truly bizarre tweets, claiming that he downplayed the pandemic avoided panic, then attempting to incite panic by insisting that American suburbs will be overrun by marauding bands of lawless agitators if he loses the election.

In the tweet, Trump paints an almost apocalyptic picture of a suburban dystopia that will ensue if he is not reelected.

"If I don't win, America's Suburbs will be OVERRUN with Low Income Projects, Anarchists, Agitators, Looters and, of course, 'Friendly Protesters'."

The tweet came on the heels of another in which he attempted to cast Bob Woodward as an opportunist while insisting his approach to the pandemic was the right one.

Both tweets come as Trump is embroiled in backlash following the release of recorded conversations with journalist Bob Woodward in which he admits both the profound danger of the virus and that he purposefully misled the public about the gravity of the pandemic.

The recordings were made in February and March, at the same time as Trump was frequently seen addressing the nation on television with bizarre claims that the virus will "disappear," comparing it to seasonal flu, and undermining both the scientific community's assertions about the virus, and state and local public health officials' warnings and requests for assistance.

Despite the fact that Woodward's recordings consist of nothing more than Trump's own words, the President called them a "political hit job" in a tweet posted yesterday.

Now, in a bizarre and contradictory gambit, it seems Trump has pivoted to stoking panic in White suburban voters in a bid to salvage his reelection campaign and maintain a claim to being the best choice in November.

As Vox's Aaron Rupar put it:

"...instead of running on his record, Trump's campaign has had to resort to stoking wildly exaggerated fears about Joe Biden. At the same time, however, Trump wants the American people to buy that he didn't level with them about the [virus] because he didn't want to stoke fear."

On Twitter, many people found Trump's claims of trying to avoid panic patently absurd.

Others pointed out that Trump's fear-mongering in White suburbs is also racist.

Today's tweets are just the latest attempts by Trump to use fear to appeal to suburban voters, even going so far as to tweet that if Biden gets elected, "You could say goodbye to your American Dream!"