President Donald Trump will no longer focus on coronavirus during his daily Coronavirus Task Force briefings.
Promising they will have “a new look” and “a new focus,” the White House says it will revamp President Trump’s daily briefings, which he has consistently held seven days a week for the past six weeks or so up until this weekend.
“We’re entering a phase of looking to reopen the country and with that, the president will be focusing a lot on the economy,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told The Associated Press.
Trump’s overwhelming focus since first learning of coronavirus back in late 2019 (some say as early as November) has been on how to ensure it does not get in the way of his re-election efforts. The President has hinged his hopes on retaining the White House by touting the economy, which is all but in tatters due to his poor management of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, in a Saturday Twitter rant Trump appeared to threaten – or promise – to end his daily coronavirus briefings as he blast the media and concluded the briefings are “Not worth the time & effort!”
After musing Thursday about injections of disinfectant to cure the human body of coronavirus, the President has not held a task force briefing since Friday’s – which he abruptly cut short before leaving without taking any questions.
On Sunday, Trump’s Monday schedule was released and as usual the Coronavirus Task Force briefing was slated for 5 PM. Late Monday morning it was canceled, only to be back on hours later.
“The White House has additional testing guidance and other announcements about safely opening up America again,” McEnany tweeted. “President @realDonaldTrump will brief the nation during a press conference this evening.”
Trump was immediately mocked on social media for being like a junkie who needs his fix.
Also on Monday Trump launched into a multi-faceted attack on the free press, calling the “FAKE NEWS” the “ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!” He also called on lawyers to look into forcing the “Noble Committee” to force reporters to return their “Noble Prizes,” neither of which exists. Trump spelled “Nobel” wrong and appeared to conflate it with the Pulitzer Prize for journalism.