Trump obsessed with ‘settling scores’ even as coronavirus kills thousands of Americans every day: report

As of this Saturday, 52,459 Americans have died from the coronavirus. As POLITICO points out, in just 81 days since the first death was recorded, the death toll has now surpassed the number of Americans we lost in Vietnam. Nevertheless, Trump is waging a war of attrition with his enemies, particularly the press.

"On Saturday and Sunday alone, TRUMP sent tweets about the Wall Street Journal editorial board; he said the media had it wrong -- “corrupt & sick!” -- when it said he was speaking to DEBORAH BIRX during a news conference; he explained his reasoning for not having news conferences anymore; he suggested Democrats and the media were in cahoots for quoting him saying the virus was a hoax; he called the Washington Post 'slime balls'; he said reports that HHS Secretary ALEX AZAR was on the brink of losing his job were fake -- twice; he tweeted threetimes about the NYT story he later pushed back on in the N.Y. Post; and he tweetedthreetimes about Fox News. And, Noble/Nobel-gate," writes POLITICO's Anne Palmer and Jake Sherman.

While every presidential administration has beefs with the press, Trump has used a "bazooka when a fly swatter would do."

"And in the midst of a widespread national tragedy, he is so occupied by these gripes, and so concerned with settling scores, that he has oriented the White House in that direction. Even with thousands of people dying by the day," writes Palmer and Sherman.

Read more over at POLITICO.