an admission of abject failure, unlikability and desperation: He is LOSING because he cannot stay out of the limelight. The perfect punishment for a narcissist

— Jennifer "A man is not a plan" Rubin 🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@JRubinBlogger) April 24, 2020

No surprise that Trump is planning to scale back briefing appearances. The more people watch them, the more they view him negatively – even 16% of Rs say so. A quarter of Rs want him to leave it to the experts. Politically, it’s bewildering it’s taken him so long to realize this. pic.twitter.com/9sq5vyqPdQ

— Ian Sams (@IanSams) April 24, 2020

Was predictable that sooner or later, Trump would run his White House news briefing some completely off the rails that even he would realize it had become self-destructive. We appear to have arrived at that point.

— David Lauter (@DavidLauter) April 24, 2020

I think this was part of it. It'll make a hell of a "Sir" story:

"Sir, as your White House Staff, we are begging, you, with tears in our eyes, to please just for one day, for maybe the first day of your life, just shut up and get off that stage." https://t.co/47iNMFrHBU

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 24, 2020

Oh good. Because what America needs now is more sarcasm https://t.co/YIb8zQaYCF

— Armando Iannucci (@Aiannucci) April 24, 2020

This really does feel like something only the most outrageous parody websites would suggest as a possible future in 2016. https://t.co/rTVQ2Mu4lK

— Kyle Orland (@KyleOrl) April 24, 2020

Here's a mashup of Trump claiming today he was just asking "a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room" when he mused about disinfectant injections as a possible coronavirus miracle cure, followed by the original clip showing beyond a doubt that he was not doing that. pic.twitter.com/wby4ucd59Q

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 24, 2020

Trump: "You know the way it was asked. I was looking at you."

Reporter: "No you weren't sir. I wasn't there yesterday."

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) April 24, 2020

The Surgeon General of the United States, whose salary is paid by all the nation’s taxpayers, and who tells us to eat our vegetables and not to use tobacco, can’t bring himself to say:

Don’t inject or ingest bleach or other disinfectants. https://t.co/iZgO4JKYA3

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) April 24, 2020

Speaker Pelosi on President Trump's disinfectant remark: "It was consistent with all of his other statements, which had no relationship to science, fact, evidence, data or appropriate way to proceed."https://t.co/HB7AZtJ8T9

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 24, 2020

"Fox & Friends" did not go along with President Trump's idea of looking at disinfectant as a Covid-19 remedy https://t.co/INRXW3ppve

— NYT Media (@nytmedia) April 24, 2020

Ok fox settles it again https://t.co/FAHLmVBwrx

— Joe Lockhart (@joelockhart) April 24, 2020

Revealed: leader of group peddling bleach as coronavirus 'cure' wrote to Trump this week https://t.co/DHoRPyqPZV

— Guardian news (@guardiannews) April 24, 2020

must say I was not expecting to find a homicide confession from the man’s wife twenty paragraphs into this story https://t.co/BjGrkeiJOz

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) April 24, 2020

@realDonaldTrump so rattled by yesterday he doesn't take questions. Looks like someone finally got to him on the damage he was doing

— Joe Lockhart (@joelockhart) April 24, 2020

REPORTER: A congressional subcommittee says that a lot of the coronavirus tests on the market haven't been approved for accuracy, and could be junk tests. Is that true?

FDA COMMISSIONER HAHN: "We provided flexibility … they have to tell us that they validated their tests." pic.twitter.com/W2pQ7GauCb

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 24, 2020

The FDA warns against the use of two drugs, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, that have been touted by President Trump as potential treatments for coronavirus https://t.co/TJNytr77XQ pic.twitter.com/JlxZf4BvAq

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) April 24, 2020

WATCH: @stephgosk reports on why the U.S. is lagging in coronavirus testing and how it will impact the nation's ability to reopen safely. https://t.co/oKlPPNqCUe

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 24, 2020

News – Senate GOP campaign arm has sent a detailed 57-page memo authored by a top party strategist advising candidates to address the coronavirus by aggressively attacking China https://t.co/X5mRFT8DE2

— Alex Isenstadt (@politicoalex) April 24, 2020

America's covid-19 death toll is higher than anywhere else in the world. Why? https://t.co/sCQXV0XlKm pic.twitter.com/G6g2alxw7z

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) April 24, 2020

The thing about not being able to empathize with the loss of one human life is that it makes you able to congratulate yourself for 100,000 deaths. https://t.co/gLlPu1JW8n

— L O L G O P (@LOLGOP) April 24, 2020

Classy guy, Esper. https://t.co/d9QkNRH1kY

— Simon Marks (@SimonMarksFSN) April 24, 2020

So when he had that phone call with Xi and suddenly stopped calling it the ‘China virus’ that wasn’t out of the goodness of his heart and because he realized his racism, but maybe because of this 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽? Say it ain’t so Donald, say it ain’t so… https://t.co/vxNTSaCGEf

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) April 24, 2020

I’m requesting the bipartisan Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis investigate whether Donald Trump owing millions to the Bank of China influenced his decision to facilitate the transportation of 17.8 tons of donated #PPE & medical supplies from U.S. to China in Feb 2020 https://t.co/gxKh3Pywlx pic.twitter.com/31Vu0KydT9

— Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) April 24, 2020

This may turn out to be the biggest scandal of the crisis: pic.twitter.com/18dZeOTDbh

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 24, 2020

If Cummings and other SpAds have been participating in SAGE meetings as peers, rather than observing, it *is* a big deal. People in NI were told flatly to trust disembodied Whitehall science that seemed indifferent to our geography but knew best. Worrying.https://t.co/NHaUcStrjr

— Matthew O'Toole (@MatthewOToole2) April 24, 2020

No10 says Dominic Cummings and Ben Warner are not "on" SAGE or members of SAGE. Oh

— Alex Wickham (@alexwickham) April 24, 2020

Exclusive:

Treasury has drawn up plans to ‘get Britain back to work’

Businesses told to put up signs telling workers to stay 2 metres apart & instruct staff to go home if they develop symptoms

Companies may also have to close ‘communal spaces’ such as canteens https://t.co/3DTbAkUWLK

— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) April 24, 2020

The number of Covid-19 deaths in care homes was estimated by Care England to have reached 7,500 a week ago https://t.co/SUZstcXD11

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) April 24, 2020

Pressured by China, E.U. Softens Report on Covid-19 Disinformation https://t.co/RcjyLfk8GJ

— Lawrence Freedman (@LawDavF) April 24, 2020

Singapore Contained the Coronavirus for Months. Now It Has One of the Worst Outbreaks in Asia. https://t.co/m5s6NG7hVR

— Jeffrey Levin 🇺🇦 (@jilevin) April 24, 2020

Some conspiracy theorists have adopted the notion that the 5G frequency spectrum somehow transmits and spreads the coronavirus, as if in a wireless miasma. https://t.co/ZTy2IRWsJe

— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) April 24, 2020

Turkey's carried out an impressive 830,000 tests. Its 2600 reported deaths a fraction of many EU countries. Yet a Turkish doctor tells us deaths could be more than 2.5 times official figure. That he believes Turkey had cases 3 weeks before admitting it. @Channel4News in 10 mins.

— Jonathan Rugman (@jrug) April 24, 2020

The success of social media platforms in limiting harmful content about COVID-19 may inspire a false hope that the new standards can or should be applied to political news. @sekreps & @BrendanNyhan explain why the two cases should not be treated the same:https://t.co/kqqJSYu8Yz

— Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) April 24, 2020

This will end well. Oil tankers are famously catastrophe-free… https://t.co/vxidOrtcDi

— Ross Greer (@Ross_Greer) April 24, 2020