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Donald Trump has fired off a series of sloppily-composed and confusing tweets after refusing to host White House coronavirus press briefings following his suggestion that injecting disinfectant could treat coronavirus.
The US president said on Saturday that his White House press conferences are “not worth the time and effort” as a result of “hostile questions” from journalists.
And he returned to the theme on Sunday night as he threatened to strip reporters of “Noble prizes” and sue media outlets over reporting that confirmed Russian interference in US elections and within the president’s 2016 campaign.
The president was ridiculed for his dangerous comments on disinfectant. Almost 55,000 have died in the US having contracted coronavirus.
It is not clear what Trump is referring to as the Nobel Prizes (note spelling) were awarded for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace and economics last year. Trump could, instead, have been referring to the Pulitzer Prizes for journalism. Several winners in 2019 investigated the Trump and his administration.
The president wrote: “When will all of the ‘reporters’ who have received Noble [sic] Prizes for their work on Russia, Russia, Russia, only to have been proven totally wrong (and, in fact, it was the other side who committed the crimes), be turning back their cherished “Nobles” so that they can be given ....to the REAL REPORTERS & JOURNALISTS who got it right. I can give the Committee a very comprehensive list.
“When will the Noble Committee DEMAND the Prizes back, especially since they were gotten under fraud.”
The president’s ire appears to have been provoked by a New York Times piece about his daily routine, which doesn’t begin until noon, after spending his mornings watching Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.
Trump tweeted about that earlier as he called himself the “hardest working president in history” and went after the Times for reporting he “angrily” eats hamburgers and drinks Diet Cokes in bed.
He initially referred to a “hamberger”.
Trump said he’s often working late at night in the Oval Office instead.
He tweeted on Sunday afternoon: “The people that know me and know the history of our Country say that I am the hardest working President in history.
“I don’t know about that, but I am a hard worker and have probably gotten more done in the first 3 1/2 years than any President in history. The Fake News hates it!”
He went on: “I work from early in the morning until late at night, haven’t left the White House in many months (except to launch Hospital Ship Comfort) in order to take care of Trade Deals, Military Rebuilding etc., and then I read a phony stroy in the failing @nytimes about my work schedule and eating habits, written by a third rate reporter who knows nothing about me.
“I will often be in the Oval Office late into the night & read & see that I am angrily eating a hamburger & Diet Coke in my bedroom. People with me are always stunned. Anything to demean!”
Tweeting on Saturday, one of the few days in which he has not held a daily briefing since the start of the outbreak, Trump said: “What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately”.
The president’s tweet came two days after he used a briefing to muse about the injection of chemical disinfectants, drawing warnings from manufacturers and the nation’s top medical professionals.
The White House claimed Friday that Trump was misinterpreted, though the president later asserted he was speaking “sarcastically.”