Donald Trump compared himself to Winston Churchill as he cited a famous slogan from a British wartime poster as the reason he downplayed the danger of the coronavirus pandemic
Mr Trump is facing backlash after telling journalist Bob Woodward that he publicly played down the potential impact of the pandemic in February and March, despite knowing how deadly it was.
Answering questions at the White House, Mr Trump insisted "there was no lie" in his dismissive public comments about the pandemic and said he was only trying to project calm.
He offered a similar explanation to his Michigan supporters at a rally on Thursday, despite Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer raising alarms about the event, warning it would make recovery harder.
"As the British government advised the British people in the face of World War II, Keep Calm and Carry On. That's what I did," Mr Trump told the rally.
"This whack job that wrote the book, he said, 'well Trump knew a little bit'.
"They wanted me to come out and scream, 'people are dying, we're dying.' No, no. We did it just the right way. We have to be calm. We don't want to be crazed lunatics."
Likening himself to Winston Churchill, the US president added: "When Hitler was bombing, I don't know if you know this, when Hitler was bombing London, Churchill, great leader, would oftentimes go to a roof in London and speak.
"And he always spoke with calmness. He said we have to show calmness. No, we did it the right way and we've done a job like nobody."
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Mr Trump "knew all along just how deadly this virus is".
"He knew and purposefully played it down because all he was concerned about was his re-election, didn't want to affect economic growth," he said in a virtual fundraiser.
The president also faced a new pushback from local officials worried about the growing size of his rallies and his campaign's repeated flouting of public health guidelines intended to halt the spread of the virus.
But, revelling in the crowd of several thousand, packed shoulder-to-shoulder in an airport hangar, mostly without masks, Mr Trump rallied against Ms Whitmer for her current state restrictions.
"This is not the crowd of a person who comes in second place. Tell your governor to open up your state," he demanded, saying Michigan would be better if it "had a governor who knew what the hell she was doing".
Mr Trump has resumed an aggressive campaign schedule, despite the ongoing pandemic and growing resistance from leaders who have expressed alarm at his insistence on holding large-scale rallies.
While the rallies so far have been held in open-air airport hangars, they have been drawing thousands of supporters despite local restrictions.
The majority of attendees, including in Michigan, have refused to wear masks, even when required to do so.
The state of Nevada became the first to scuttle his plans for rallies initially set for Las Vegas and Reno.
The Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority warned a company that planned to host 5,000 people at a private hangar it would be in violation of the governor's restrictions banning gatherings of more than 50 people and the terms of the company's lease for the hangar.
In Michigan, Ms Whitmer did not try to stop the rally, but warned that such events "threaten all that sacrifice that we've made".
"If the rallies are like those he's held in recent days in other states, with lots of people close together without masks on projecting their voices, I'm concerned about it," she said on Thursday morning.