I'm reading deception (not malice) because he said he was being deceptive. He was not transparent at all.
He chose to allocate resources for the contemporaneous crisis at the expense of the trust needed to manage future crises. Maybe you objectively think that was the correct choice, but it's revisionist to claim that that wasn't the choice he made.
Where does he say he was being deceptive? I reject both your premise and your interpretation: you either don’t remember well or didn’t understand anything.
He chose to allocate resources for the contemporaneous crisis at the expense of the trust needed to manage future crises. Maybe you objectively think that was the correct choice, but it's revisionist to claim that that wasn't the choice he made.