It will be two years of "fits and starts" in opening the country back up from the coronavirus, per Don McNeil.

"If too many people get infected at once, new lockdowns will become inevitable." https://t.co/mpHwYqpVE3

— Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) April 18, 2020

The president is, again, saying stuff.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2020

He usually tries to stick to the text for a little longer than this. He went off script instantly. He’s really not bothering very much with whatever they put in front of him today.

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 18, 2020

Trump just alluded to the possibility that the virus was released deliberately. You know, just as aside.

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 18, 2020

The US has the most coronavirus deaths in the world, but Trump begins the April 18 #TrumpPressConf by claiming America "has produced better health outcomes than any other country, with the possible exception of Germany." pic.twitter.com/puRZgsvIeh

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2020

Trump begins at the briefing by touting "very positive trends, for winning." He says we are mourning the loss of life, and "you can't mourn it any stronger than we're mourning it." He bashes "fake news."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 18, 2020

Coronavirus hit mostly blue states first. It made Trump’s base even more gullible, combative & vulnerable. Propaganda is flowing & he will cannibalize them to re-open early. It’s a good bet his supporters will now die at 2 to 1 ratio over ppl who follow safety & social distancing

— Tom Joseph (@TomJChicago) April 18, 2020

New estimates by Harvard researchers suggest that the U.S. cannot safely reopen unless it conducts more than 3 times the number of coronavirus tests it's currently administering over the next monthhttps://t.co/qhca6R2A2p

— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 18, 2020

Here is the conclusion of one of the most unhinged and bizarre rants I have ever heard Trump go on. Keep in mind this is a press briefing about a pandemic that is killing over 1,000 Americans each day right now. pic.twitter.com/3PGe9MsOQb

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2020

Trump has been president for three years, 89 days, 37 minutes and 10 seconds. https://t.co/Mwg7iaMqvG

— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@MollyJongFast) April 18, 2020

“If I wasn’t elected, you would be at war with North Korea…” and now the lies about no ammunition or ventilators, but the cupboard is at least dry so nothing will spoil.

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) April 18, 2020

This is a really whiny, needy briefing. It has no purpose other than for him to plead his case and tell everyone to stop being mean to him.
Totally in angry rally mode. And I think people should watch it to remind themselves that their president is completely unhinged.

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 18, 2020

"Unfortunately, some partisan voices are trying to politicize the issue of testing, which they shouldn't be doing. Because I inherited broken junk" — Trump absurdly tries to blame Obama for his administration's failures developing a test for a virus that didn't exist until 2019 pic.twitter.com/Qnh9oEtugu

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2020

Nobody really mentions the way Trump repeats the same five thoughts over and over and over and over and over and over

— Helen Kennedy (@HelenKennedy) April 5, 2020

Via @jmart and me, the Trump campaign and Republican allies want to focus attention on China as a malign actor in the coronavirus spread. One uncertain factor? The president's own praise for Xi, including in last two months > https://t.co/JaPaF6lAhB

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 18, 2020

Take "at the coronavirus briefing" out of this sentence and it applies to every day since the inauguration, and even before. https://t.co/DP39NuKk8Q

— John Cassidy (@JohnCassidy) April 18, 2020

Rich people are paying Trump's cult members to risk their lives screaming for Americans to go back to work and die to make rich people more money. https://t.co/VlwsKqEWC1

— Erin Biba (@erinbiba) April 18, 2020

pic.twitter.com/jI8jj7Bs8X

— 🖕🏻Aunt Crabby calls Bullshit 🖕🏻 (@DearAuntCrabby) April 18, 2020

If this is the timetable govt adopts, it has 3 weeks to scale up a comprehensive national testing programme.
I don't see how the schools can open without the ability to track and trace every case in the community.
The record on testing to date does not fill me with confidence. https://t.co/vK7neyKN7R

— Andrew Lewin (@Alewin7) April 18, 2020

So Boris skipped 5 COBRA meetings, ignored scientific warnings and took time off. We have no effective government.

— John Crace (@JohnJCrace) April 18, 2020

12 days in February. This is when Johnson went missing. He wasn’t attending COBRA meetings because according to @thesundaytimes he’d got his girlfriend pregnant & was in throes of divorcing his wife. Or what we may come to think of as deadliest mid-life crisis of all time.. pic.twitter.com/949ptQPmZp

— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) April 18, 2020

I’m reliably informed Murdoch wants Gove to replace Johnson. Let’s be clear the whole lot of them have their hands soaked in blood. None of them is fit to lead. https://t.co/vILrXqiXyj

— Tim Walker (@ThatTimWalker) April 18, 2020

thoroughly unnerving claim within the Sunday Times splash pic.twitter.com/LxX2CwlxLU

— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) April 18, 2020

The threat of #Covid19 to wreck our way of life was already clear to senior health experts on 22 January (this date is etched on my brain because I argued that day with colleagues that we had to discuss it on #Peston show). And on 11 February…

— Robert Peston (@Peston) April 18, 2020

Being overweight can lead to more serious coronavirus hospital admissions, UK research shows https://t.co/uabCHIQRkt

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) April 18, 2020

NEW: The inside story of the Ventilator Challenge – the muddled thinking, the wasted time the political egoism. It's a mad tale. Stay with me. Me with my superb @ft colleague @Michael_Pooler 1/Threadhttps://t.co/5SNI7QbzAU

— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) April 18, 2020

Gordon Brown’s Case for Global Coöperation During the Coronavirus Pandemic | The New Yorker https://t.co/xJJzQdtFCF

— Matthew Hardy (@drmatthewhardy) April 18, 2020

‘Donald Trump is in no position to dictate terms, not at home, not abroad, certainly not to India.’ — Watch this Indian news outlet skewer Trump’s coronavirus failures and tantrums pic.twitter.com/OUc338qVnQ

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 18, 2020

In case you were wondering how Sweden’s “no lockdown” experiment is going: pic.twitter.com/VRLOvlYrRV

— Ben Coates (@bencoates1) April 17, 2020

In glimpse of life after lockdown, some countries begin to reopen schools https://t.co/MAiklJ9s4B

— Ben Pershing (@benpershing) April 18, 2020

NEW: Russia reports 4,785 new cases of coronavirus, 36,793 cases in total.

Russia's largest daily increase by far.

— Norbert Elekes (@NorbertElekes) April 18, 2020

What?! Don't trust China, but spread Putin's blatant Covid propaganda? He's been lying from the start and Russia's numbers are just as fake as China's. Don't trust dictatorships, even if they support Trump. https://t.co/eXwDaEmF4l

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) April 18, 2020