Jonathan Chait: “Trump’s recent polling bump is real. The important context, though, is that every leader is getting approval bumps, and almost all of them are getting much bigger ones than Trump…”

“The double-edged sword of public opinion on the presidency is that Americans give the chief executive too much credit for good times and too much blame for bad ones. They expect presidents to solve all problems, even ones beyond the office’s capacity. Trump has conspicuously failed even to pantomime what that kind of leadership looks like. Mostly he talks about other things to blame: China, the Obama administration, various Democratic governors, General Motors, and the supposed (and clearly untrue) fact that ‘nobody saw this coming.’ He said on camera, ‘I don’t take responsibility at all,’ a line that will appear in almost every Democratic ad, because it violates Americans’ most fundamental requirements of their leaders.”

“Trump’s management of the coronavirus has been shambolic. Even the superficial communication of his management has been a disaster. His present, very modest high watermark in polling is a reservoir of goodwill that he is rapidly squandering. If he winds up winning reelection, it will be in spite of everything he has done so far.”

“When President Trump came to office, he promised a new day with America’s manufacturers, casting himself as the first president who understood their needs. He toured factory floors, often handing out his signature ‘Make America Great Again’ hats,” the New York Times reports.

“Yet in the first national crisis that required harnessing American manufacturing ingenuity and ramping up production of ventilators, perhaps the most crucial piece of equipment for patients in crisis, the White House’s ability to gather the power of American industry crumpled.”

President Trump clashed with PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor during a press briefing when she asked him why he claimed some governors were exaggerating the coronavirus outbreak.

Said Trump: “Why don’t you act in a little more positive… it’s always get ya, get ya, get ya. You know what? That’s why nobody trusts the media anymore.”

He added: “That’s why you used to work for the Times and now you work for somebody else. Look, let me tell you something: Be nice. Don’t be threatening.”

President Trump took to Twitter to tout the ratings of his coronavirus news conferences.

Said Trump: “Because the ‘Ratings’ of my News Conferences etc. are so high, ‘Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football type numbers’ according to the @nytimes, the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY.”

After his initial tweet, he sent four follow-up tweets quoting from a New York Times story on his ratings.

“The worst thing you can do is raise false expectations and then watch them get dashed – then, they begin to lose confidence in their leadership. So we should just tell the truth as best we know it, as best the scientists know it. We should let them speak.”

— Joe Biden, in an interview with NBC News.

“Eager to demonstrate that he is in control of a viral outbreak that is spreading rapidly across the country, President Trump has ramped up efforts to show he is using some of his broadest powers as commander in chief,” the Washington Post reports.

“But the unprecedented push has been plagued by growing confusion about how far his authorities actually extend and how much he is willing to use them.”

“President Trump was set to fly to Norfolk, Va., on Saturday to see off the Comfort, a naval hospital ship, as it deployed to New York where it will help a state struggling to handle an influx of coronavirus patients by adding 1,000 hospital beds to a system in short supply,” the New York Times reports.

“The 200-mile trip will be Mr. Trump’s first time leaving the White House in nine days, and his decision to turn the moment into a high-profile photo opportunity raised questions about safety and his use of government resources at a time when the administration’s own federal guidelines advise against most travel and gatherings of more than 10 people.”

Said former Gov. Terry McAuliffe: “We don’t need Donald Trump in Virginia doing a photo op. We need respirators and we need masks, like every other state in the country. He ought to be staying in Washington, in his job. It’s a total waste of time.”

“When President Trump signed the $2 trillion economic stabilization package to respond to the coronavirus pandemic on Friday, he undercut a crucial safeguard that Democrats insisted upon as a condition of agreeing to include a $500 billion corporate bailout fund,” the New York Times reports.

“In a signing statement released hours after Mr. Trump signed the bill in a televised ceremony in the Oval Office, the president suggested he had the power to decide what information a newly created inspector general intended to monitor the fund could share with Congress.”

Politico: Trump chips away at Congress’ role in coronavirus relief oversight.

Wall Street Journal: “Mr. Trump has told people he wants his signature to appear on the direct payment checks that will go out to many Americans in the coming weeks.”

“Normally, a civil servant—the disbursing officer for the payment center—would sign federal checks.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi not invited to today’s White House signing ceremony for the $2.2 trillion economic relief package, CNN reports.

President Trump and Pelosi have not spoken in more than five months.

No other Democrat was invited either.