Coronavirus: Trump says media "only thing we weren't prepared for"

During his daily briefing about the coronavirus pandemic, US president Donald Trump rounded on the media when he was asked why the country was not prepared with more tests to stop the outbreak.

Media treatment has been unfair, Trump complains

“The only thing we weren’t prepared for was the media. The media has not treated it fairly,” said Trump during his press conference.

The president cited his ban on people coming in from China, and said the media had called him a "racist and other words" for doing so. He said had he let in those tens of thousands of people from China, "we wouldn't even recognise it compared with where we are".

He said other countries are now following his lead but that the media doesn't acknowledge that he was the first. "They know it's true but they don't want to write about it," he said.

Trump has been criticised lately for his comments in the past few days. He suggested people should ingest or inject disinfectants to treat Covid-19 and around 100 people actually listened to the president and were rushed to the hospital.

Trump set to step back from briefings

President Trump also wrote on Twitter that he is thinking about cancelling his daily press conferences because the media are manipulating his words and they are misinforming the American people through this pandemic.

"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," he tweeted. "They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!

He later also wrote: “I never said the pandemic was a Hoax! Who would say such a thing? I said that the Do Nothing Democrats, together with their Mainstream Media partners, are the Hoax. They have been called out and embarrassed on this, even admitting they were wrong, but continue to spread the lie."