And apparently Trump thought that 1.5 million dead americans was an acceptable death toll.
So he "played it down"
isn't that what the experts gave him? His task would be to keep that from happening. seems he succeeded. what is it you didn't get?
That Trump didn't do anything to control the death toll. That was placed on the backs of governors and mayors, who ordered wearing masks, and shutting down the economy to control the death toll.
Meanwhile Trump argued against wearing a mask, and argued against shutting down the economy. The exact opposite of what brought down the coronavirus death tolls.
If Trump had the country do it his way (rather than the governors doing all the work) the estimated 1.5 million deaths would have been accurate.