wouldn't agree with you, since I think a POTUS does need to offer a calm steady hand to the public, and we saw publicly countless examples where he did just that, but you can argue that. You can't argue that he didn't downplay it for the reasons he said he did, because you have no idea what motivated his decision. (although I'll stipulate he does everything to benefit his administration, re-election chances, and advancing his agenda) Just because you want to cherry pick his words to suggest a different motive. His words matter. All of them.

As an aside, you can try to argue he talked about things like the caravans to "instill fear and panic". I would suggest that would be how you want to depict it to push your desired political narrative. I and others may say he did it to bring light to a problem our country was facing - illegal immigration.