This is a dog that isn't going to hunt https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-01/china-concealed-extent-of-virus-outbreak-u-s-intelligence-says?utm_source=twitter&utm_content=business&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&__twitter_impression=true

China lied, people died. The only question is how big the lies were and how big they still are. That said, there's a number of problems with this messaging

First, there's little information given here about what exactly this report consists of and how it was compiled. Human intelligence sources with access to internal records? Technical intelligence intercepts and sat imagery? Analysis of open and "grey" sources?

Or, all of the above put together? Either way, there's an enormous credibility problem given that it is coming from an administration that is looking for incentives to escape the consequences of its own malfeasance and lies habitually.

Which gets to the other issue. The biggest propaganda gain the US could have viz China is simply to be capable of protecting its own citizens while resuming what passes for "normal" economic activity. We can't do that, hence this.

Trump is a businessman and the maxim "money talks, bullshit walks" is important here. The stock market is plunging, so bullshit it is then.

The thing that is probably most risible about this is how much it amounts to an unintentional self-own. There were unclassified indicators that something was going on in China in December and earlier. Cabinet officials and lawmakers were briefed months ago.

So after being bombarded with classified and unclassified information suggesting that something was running amuck and the Chicoms were not being honest about the full extent of it, they did what exactly?

Comparatively, suppose that there is some mass zombie outbreak in China. Officials say "there are no zombies running loose, it is American propaganda." And then cellphone footage leaks of a PLA officer getting eaten by a pack of Resident Evil remake monsters

The USG, instead of suddenly mobilizing anti-zombie defenses, decides to sit on its ass for month or two. Then suddenly zombies start popping up everywhere. "Those damn dirty commies lied!" Yes, uh, they did. It's your job to protect the national interest IN SPITE OF IT

Trump billed himself as the kind of President who would not trust unreliable foreigners to tell the truth and would not genuflect to international institutions. He would build a wall and make Winnie the Pooh *cough cough* Xi Xingping pay for it.

Like everything else this was just a character he played on TV, not reality. Which is why, apparently, an infamously nationalistic president is focusing blame on the perfidy of foreigners, as if that was some major obstacle to him in acting.