In his latest White House press conference on Covid-19 – which went ahead last night despite his gripes, as we’ve already seen – the president announced a new plan to roll out national testing for the virus as several key states commenced their gradual reopening from lockdown.

He also came out with a few classic Trumpisms during the session, saying that state governors are “as thrilled as they can be” with the supply of testing kits and ventilators “considering the fact that there has been so much unnecessary death in this country”.

Yikes, you said it Don. Good thing those 50,000 aren’t on you for eh?

After blaming China for the outbreak, he added the important caveat “Nobody is blaming anyone here” before lying that “Nancy Pelosi was dancing in the streets of Chinatown” in February when she promoted the San Francisco district in her constituency after it was hit by a wave of right-wing Sinophobia.

He also got sandbagged with an absolute zinger of a question from Olviia Nuzzi of New York magazine: “If a president loses more Americans in six weeks than died in the Vietnam War, does he deserve to be re-elected?”

Here’s our report.
 

Trump has meanwhile deleted several angry, misspelled tweets attacking the media over its negative coverage of the federal response to the crisis after they were met with criticism and mockery, with CNN anchor Jake Tapper describing his posting of a deepfake video of Joe Biden as “indecent and obscene”.

Clearly frustrated with being cooped up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and not able to hit the links, the president spent his weekend pushing conspiracy theories (see that John Cardillo retweet below) and taking bad press VERY personally.

…and here’s Tapper and Dana Bash chewing over the weekend’s controversies.
 

John T Bennett has this on “hambergers” and “Noble Prizes”.
 

Donald Trump has denied responsibility for Americans ingesting disinfectants after Maryland governor Larry Hogan said he had received calls asking about it as a weapon against coronavirus in the wake of the president suggesting it could be an effective remedy during a briefing last week.

The president said he could not imagine where the public got the idea from when asked about it last night by reporter Brian Karem, a brazen response even for him.

As you will no doubt recall, Trump tasked Dr Deborah Birx, the coronavirus task force’s co-ordinator, with investigating the impact consuming toxic materials might have on the virus during Thursday’s White House press briefing before claiming the following day he was raising the matter “sarcastically” to test the reaction of reporters he believes to be biased against him.

Here’s John T Bennett’s report.