What about the public health professionals?

Trump accuses media of wanting to keep economy shut to hurt his reelection

Doubtless true of those in the media as irresponsible as he is.

The US president has been pushing to reopen swaths of the country by Easter – 12 April – despite warnings from medical experts that measures such as closing businesses and social distancing need more time to work.

“The LameStream Media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed as long as possible in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success,” he tweeted on Wednesday. “The real people want to get back to work ASAP. ”

At Wednesday’s White House coronavirus taskforce briefing, Trump followed up with an aggressive denial that the Easter timeline is based on his political interests. “The media would like to see me do poorly in the election,” he said.

Challenged by a reporter, Trump, who has long used the press as a punching bag, said with exasperation: “Just so you understand – are you ready? – I think there are certain people that would like it not to open so quickly. I think there are certain people that would like it to do financially poorly because they think that would be very good as far as defeating me at the polls.”

The president added: “I don’t know if that’s so, but I do think it’s so that there are people in your profession that would like that to happen. I think it’s very clear that there are people in your profession that write fake news.”

Gesturing around the briefing room with his hands, he said: “You do. She does. There are people in your profession that write fake news. They would love to see me – for whatever reason, because we’ve done one hell of a job, nobody’s done the job that we’ve done – and it’s lucky that you have this group here right now for this problem because you wouldn’t even have a country left.”