OPINION: When the White House began regular coronavirus briefings last month, they were sedate affairs. Vice-President Mike Pence was in charge, with public health officials such as Anthony Fauci playing leading roles.
The focus was on communicating important facts – how many cases had been recorded, where they were located – and offering Americans practical tips about preventing the spread of the virus.
But, like so much else in American life in recent weeks, the briefings have completely changed. Bit by bit, they have morphed into prime-time presidential open mic sessions that can now last up to two hours.
Deprived of the ability to appear at his campaign rallies, Trump uses the briefings to dominate the airwaves and ensure he remains the centre of national attention.
"It's going to cost lives," MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said last week after Trump spruiked the potential use of anti-malaria medications to treat the virus.
Trump's briefing on Tuesday was a snappy half-hour, but it followed an hour-long session earlier in the day on a Fox News coronavirus special.
This week's media appearances have felt as if they have been beamed in from an alternative universe, a hallucinogenic dreamscape that bears little resemblance to the lived reality in much of America and the rest of the world.
Trump has now abandoned the serious and sober tone he struck when speaking about the pandemic last week. He is no longer acknowledging that the crisis will last for many months. He no longer says saving lives must take precedence over the economy.
"We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu," Trump said during the Fox News town hall. "We don't turn the country off."
He said he wanted to have the economy "opened up and just raring to go" again by Easter, less than three weeks away.
In short, Trump appears to have become bored by the pandemic. His administration's social distancing guidelines have only been in place for a week, yet he is already flirting with ditching them or watering them down.
Based on Trump's optimistic rhetoric you could think Americans' worst coronavirus days were behind them. Instead, according to the current projections, they are just around the corner.
As Trump was favourably comparing the risk of coronavirus to the regular flu, The New York Times published an opinion article by bioethicist and oncologist Ezekiel Emanuel warning: "If the United States fails to act decisively now, it will follow Italy's course or, worse, that of Iran, and recovery may take a decade or more with extraordinary levels of death and dislocation."
Matthew Knott 16:55, Mar 25 2020