Donald Trump launched an extraordinary rant against a reporter after they asked him to reassure Americans worried by coronavirus.
The epic tantrum, broadcast on live TV, came at today’s White House coronavirus taskforce briefing.
The billionaire president accused NBC correspondent Peter Alexander of being a “terrible reporter” who had asked a “nasty question”.
It came after Mr Alexander, the outlet’s White House correspondent, asked him: “What do you say to Americans who are scared though?”
“Nearly 200 dead, 14,000 who are sick, millions as you witness who are scared right now.
“What do you say to Americans, who are watching you right now, who are scared?”
Trump responded: “I say that you’re a terrible reporter. That’s what I say.
"I think it’s a very nasty question and I think it’s a very bad signal that you’re putting out to the American people.”
The President then proceeded to accuse NBC news and its parent company Comcast of being 'sensationalist'.
"You're doing sensationalism," he said. ”And the same with NBC and Comcast. I don't call it Comcast. I call it ‘Con-Cast.’”
"Let me just tell you something. That's really bad reporting. And you ought to get back to reporting instead of sensationalism."
Mr Alexander was left speechless.
Trump has this week been talking up hopes that the anti-malarial drug chloroquine could be used to successfully treat coronavirus, which is now a global health pandemic.
He responded angrily after Mr Alexander queried his instinct to put a “positive spin on things”.
The reporter had suggested this could give Americans a false sense of optimism about efforts to bring the disease under control.
When he was challenged over why he was assailing a journalist amid a national crisis, he said that “coming together is much harder when we have dishonest journalists”.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had previously warned that the evidence chloroquine can cure coronavirus is still “anecdotal”.
But Trump, who has been accused of downplaying the threat posed by the Covid-19 crisis - said he had a “good” feeling about the drug.
“It may work, it may not work. I feel good about it. That’s all it is, it’s a feeling,” he said on Friday.
At the same briefing, Trump also announced restrictions on all non-essential travel across the US-Mexico border.
Stricter controls on undocumented migrants are also now in place, and the US, Mexico and Canada have agreed that any migrants crossing a border illegally will be returned to their home country.
Asylum seekers will no longer be held in US facilities due to the health risk posed to other migrants, and border staff.
More than 1,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the US, with 19 deaths as of Friday.
The total number of cases in the US surged past 13,000 on Thursday, as all Americans were warned to return home or stay abroad indefinitely.
