Amid 53,000 coronavirus deaths, accounting for one fourth of global Coronavirus fatalities, the President of United States Donald Trump tweeted on Saturday that his daily coronavirus briefings were not worth his time, two days after sparking a furor by suggesting patients might be injected with disinfectant to kill an infection.

Trump took to Twitter and said, “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.”

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

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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2020

Amid media reports that Trump was considering halting the briefings which dominate early-evening cable television news for sometimes more than two hours will no longer be taken, as he is frustrated with questions about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, he seems to confirm the news.

“They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!” he added while attacking the media.

President Donald Trump late Thursday turned during a press conference to government scientists in the room and asked them about disinfectant.

On Thursday the US leader stunned viewers by saying doctors might treat people infected with the coronavirus by shining ultraviolet light inside their bodies, or with injections of household disinfectant.

“I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that… It sounds interesting to me,” Trump said, without explaining the type of disinfectant he was talking about.

After a scientist made a presentation at the daily Coronavirus Task Force briefing on Thursday showing that COVID-19 virus is killed by sunlight in two minutes, Trump suggested bringing powerful light inside the body.

“So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous – whether it’s ultraviolet or just a very powerful light – and I think you said that hasn’t been checked because of the testing,” President Trump said.

After being brutally criticised for his suggestion that people could try injecting disinfectant to fight the novel Coronavirus, US President sought to play down his statement, claiming he was being “sarcastic.”

“I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you, just to see what would happen,” he told journalists at the White House but did not take further questions from journalists and limited that day’s briefing, which usually includes himself, Vice President Mike Pence and members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, to just 19 minutes.

The White House did not hold any briefing on Saturday after 50 briefings over two months.

Trump administration was using these briefings to promote their policies, occupy television screens, fend off critics and attack political rivals, be it the opposition Democrats or China and even the media critical of the government.

Trump’s popularity among voters has not increased by theses briefings, suggest opinion polls, as he gears up to battle Democrat Joe Biden in the presidential election in November as more than 53,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.

Most Americans with a crushing majority of Democrats don’t believe Trump when it comes to the health emergency facing the country,  suggests an AP-NORC poll published  on Thursday, reported news agency AFP.