For once in his life, Trump scared himself at a coronavirus briefing gone wrong

For weeks, advisers have apparently been urging Donald Trump to take a step back from his daily White House briefings on the coronavirus pandemic, fearing he may have been doing himself more harm than good.

Appearing alongside his top health chiefs, the president has attempted to exploit the events to lavish himself with praise, demean the media and insult his political opponents. Clearly, he is doing everything he can to change the perception that he failed miserably in his first major crisis since entering the White House.

Aides have, according to some sources, pointed to negative polling numbers and the fear that his mixed messages and false statements were providing ample ammunition for the Democrats’ 2020 election ads. But he has, predictably, ignored them and gone with his gut instead.

Of course, there’s a risk — but look at the benefits. Trump boasts that the daily primetime broadcasts, which last up to two and a half hours, rack up stellar viewing figures, comparing them to Monday Night Football and the finale of The Bachelor. Over 8.5 million Americans have been tuning in, after all.

But then, last Thursday, something changed.

Spitballing to health experts about potential treatments — in a way most world leaders are too careful or sensible to do — Trump suggested looking into injecting disinfectant and exposure to UV light.

As The Independent’s evening US team monitored the briefing for news lines, a conversation developed that was probably echoed in (remote) newsrooms across the world. Did he really just say that? Is there something here we’re not getting?

It took a short while to convince ourselves that the man overseeing the epicentre of the pandemic (notwithstanding the veracity of China’s figures) was suggesting something so dangerous that it quickly had international companies scrambling to urge people not to ingest disinfectants; poison control departments inundated by calls; comedians overwhelmed with material, incredulous at the generosity of this latest gift.

As international outrage and ridicule mounted, the great showman for once seemed cowed. He walked out of the next night’s briefing without taking questions. He sulked that there was no point holding them. He came up with a lame excuse for his comments, so half-hearted that it made no sense even to those minded to believe it. Over the weekend he seemed out of sorts, even deleting a bizarre series of tweets about the “Noble Prize”.

Was the six-week tradition of the evening briefing at an end? Would Trump allow discretion to be the better part of valour and let the health experts do their job? It appeared so: the White House said on Monday that there would be no briefing that day. And Trump stuck with that decision — for a couple of hours.

Sure enough, that evening there he was again — now in the Rose Garden instead of the James S Brady briefing room. While he seemed less ebullient than normal, even a little subdued, he was quickly back to his usual repertoire of self-justification and dubious claims.

As The Independent’s DC bureau chief John T Bennett wrote afterwards: “The president and his new communications team in recent days have signalled a new strategy. Though he delivered a coronavirus press conference on Monday, they say he won’t do them as often and the ones he does do might look different. Yet, he seems unable to resist.”

Trump had a scare when the kind of careless, irresponsible musing that wouldn’t have raised a comment on the set of The Apprentice or in the boardrooms of his companies got out of hand and exposed him to a level of scorn that could stick to him for ever.

But with another knife-edge election facing him in November, there is only one way to get his message out to an audience of millions, and there’s only one person he trusts to get it out there.

Expect to see that person hogging the limelight again at the next briefing.

Yours,

Phil Thomas

Assistant editor (New York)