In one of the most unhinged presidential tantrums ever captured on television, President Donald Trump descended into a stunning display of anger as he sparred with reporters over his response to the coronavirus pandemic during Monday’s briefing at the White House.
Before the news brief went completely off the rails, Trump did his best to sell an alternative reality to Americans glued to their television sets at home.
With over 23,000 Americans dead and millions without a paycheck, Trump dimmed the lights in the White House briefing room, fired up a misleading propaganda video and then boiled over, angrily claiming that his “authority is total” to order states and cities to get moving again to break out of the frozen economy.
Trump’s implosion came as governors across the nation banded together in an implied challenge to his vow to get people back to work soon, setting off a brewing confrontation over the power of the federal government.
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Hours before the press briefing, governors on the coasts announced that they had formed their own pacts to coordinate the steps they will take to reopen the economy in their states, essentially calling Trump’s bluff, asserting their own authority before the President proclaimed that his authority was “total” and prepared to announce his “Opening Our Economy” task force Tuesday.
When challenged by reporters, he quickly shifted his anger at the media, ranting that the press was not giving him credit because “everything we did was right” in the coronavirus pandemic and declaring that “I’m the President of the United States, despite the things that are said.”
Watch some highlights of Monday’s briefing:
