Meanwhile, Back In the Rose Garden

“It’s pretty unlikely, I would think at this time," says Pres Trump, asked if he would impose a national stay-at-home order. He says he's leaving it up to the Governors to decide in each state. Says 70-day order in Virginia doesnt bother him. "People should be staying at home." pic.twitter.com/lfZbjrQwnI

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) March 30, 2020

Probably because it would be a suggestion, not an order.  That kind of "police power," as the lawyers say, resides solely with the states.  (How many times do we have to explain this?)

TRUMP: "Yesterday, I announced that we would be extending our social distance guidelines through the end of April. This is based on modeling that shows the peak in fatalities will not arrive for another two weeks."

— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) March 30, 2020

(I mean, I know he's reading from a prepared statement, but "guidelines" should be at least a clue, right?)

Disturbing video shows dead bodies loaded onto truck outside NYC hospitals https://t.co/unZgoFfExn via @nypmetro

— Bernadette Hogan (@bern_hogan) March 30, 2020

Trump directs @SeemaCMS to come to the podium and talk about what she's doing and "how positive" it's been.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 30, 2020

"You should be saying congratulations," Trump lectures @yamiche, claiming her perfectly straightforward question was "snarky." Then, he turned on his heel and went back to the White House. More time was spent giving platforms to CEOs to speak than letting reporters ask q's

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 30, 2020

Again:  is everybody watching?

Trump just answered a question about why the U.S. lags other countries, like South Korea, in per-capita testing by saying that Seoul has 38M people “all tightly wound together.”

Seoul’s population is just under 10M people. The U.S.’s largest city, New York, has just under 9M.

— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) March 30, 2020

(Yeah, about that:

Trump just said Seoul has "38 million people" in it. That's such an oddly wrong and yet specific number, I did a google search for Seoul. pic.twitter.com/iuK0g6iBSo

— Adam Bates (@AdamTaylorBates) March 30, 2020

Alright, back to regular order.)

That is the question Yamiche Alcindor was asking that prompted Trump's response in the tweet just above.

Nearly 3,000 Americans are dead from the coronavirus crisis.

There are more than 156,000 confirmed cases in the U.S.

TRUMP’S RESPONSE JUST NOW: “We're doing a great job, as good a job as you can possibly do." pic.twitter.com/0MNpciNj8K

— CAP Action (@CAPAction) March 30, 2020

I do hope everyone was watching.

I hope Michigan voters will be made aware of this by the Democratic Party and consider this when they cast their ballots in November. https://t.co/Wc2bx1GLg4

— Jerry Taylor (@jerry_jtaylor) March 30, 2020

No, not part of the press conference.  But maybe it will be tomorrow.

We live in hope.