Trump 'frustrated and angry' that Americans care more about COVID-19 than his Biden smears: White House reporter

President Donald Trump sees himself as the real victim of the coronavirus pandemic, and a White House correspondent says that's why he can't show sympathy for the 100,000 dead.

The president just can't bring himself to act as "consoler-in-chief," Associated Press reporter Jonathan Lemire told MSNBC's "Morning Joe," because he's frustrated over COVID-19's damage to his re-election campaign strategy.

"This is a president who has been from the very beginning of this crisis has been frustrated and angry this has happened to him, and ill-prepared," Lemire said. "He was going into this year expecting to run for re-election on the back of a strong economy against what he thought would be a weak Democratic foe, and that all went away."

Lemire confirmed reports that Trump spent Memorial Day weekend moping around the White House, whining about himself being a victim of the pandemic.

"There has been that for a while now, sort of this frustration from the president for exactly that reason," Lemire said, "that he felt like he was on the glide path to re-election. We can debate whether that was true or not, but that was his perception. He was ahead."

Before the pandemic wrecked the economy and started killing thousands of Americans every day, Trump felt strong -- and now he doesn't.

"He felt that he was in strong position -- this is back to January or so, February, that to win another four years," Lemire said. "There is an anger there that he's been deprived of that. That's partially why we're seeing its campaign flailing as much as it is, trying to revive the playbook that he had planned to use all along -- hearing about Hunter Biden, hearing about Joe Biden's Washington ties, revisiting the Russia probe with the 'Obamagate' moniker now. Those are the things he hoped to use to revive the strategy that he did in 2016."

But a global pandemic that's showing no signs of letting up have largely erased those concerns.

"Most of that now Americans don't care about at this moment," Lemire said. "They care about the pandemic, they care about their jobs lost, they care about the health and safety of their loved ones, including themselves. That's their focus, and the president has not been able to adapt."

"What he's done is worked against himself," he added. "If some of these guidelines have had been stricter earlier, then the country would be in better shape. If he were wearing masks, he would be setting a better example allowing businesses to open safely. He's worked against his best interest time and time again out of the frustration that this is the situation he's in."