Okay, what’s going on here?
After President Donald Trump declined to hold any coronavirus press briefings over the weekend, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said during a Fox News interview on Monday morning that Trump also would not be holding a briefing later in the day.
Then in a sudden whiplash, McEnany announced several hours later that Trump would do a briefing on Monday evening after all.
“UPDATE: The White House has additional testing guidance and other announcements about safely opening up America again,” the press secretary tweeted. “President @realDonaldTrump will brief the nation during a press conference this evening.”
Earlier in the day, McEnany had told the co-hosts of Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” that there would be no briefing.
She insisted that the decision was “absolutely not an effort to cut back” on the press conferences after Trump claimed COVID-19 could be cured by pumping disinfectant into the human body.
The press secretary said the coronavirus task force will hold briefings later on in the week.
But while Trump will “absolutely” be present at those briefings, the conferences “may have a different look,” McEnany said, without going into detail.
Shortly before the press secretary made the announcement, Trump fired off several tweets ranting about the “hostile Lamestream Media” being “THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE” on Monday morning.
On Friday, he complained on Twitter that the press conferences were “not worth the time & effort” because the media “asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately.”
Trump’s rage arose in the fallout of his press conference on Thursday, during which he told the country that injecting disinfectant would cure the virus.
Watch McEnany below:
WH press secretary says Trump won't hold a press briefing today. pic.twitter.com/nUz1bxQqk8
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) April 27, 2020
