Programming has never had a problem of people thinking it's easy. There are many people who never attempt it because they think it's some impossibly difficult thing that they'll never learn.
Facebook had a commercial where they said something like "we'll hire anyone who can code, it's as easy as learning multiplication tables!" I don't remember the exact quote but those outreach programs but it felt a bit ridiculous at the time.
If you say something is easy and a person fails at it, they'll feel worse when they fail. If you acknowledge it's challenging at first they're better fit to handle it with grit and keep trying. Programming is something you're going to have to fail at continuously before you get it. And if afterwards you say, "see wasn't that easy?" there's no sense of accomplishment.