TRUMP: "When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total. And that's the way it's gotta be. It's total."

. @kaitlancollins: You said when someone is the president, their authority is total. That is not true.

TRUMP: "Okay -- you know what we're going to do? We're going to write up papers on this. It's not gonna be necessary. Because the governors need us one way or the other."

"Enough" -- Trump shushes @kaitlancollins as she tries to question him about his dictatorial statements

Trump takes a leading question from an OAN sycophant who basically asks him if he plans to crack down on Michigan and its Democratic governor

"You'd probably be the last person I'd tell" -- Trump again spars with @PaulaReidCBS

"I support the president's leadership under the national emergency declaration he signed" -- Mike Pence suggests he has no objection to Trump (falsely) characterizing his power as "total"

TRUMP on reports of Chinese aggression in the South China Sea: "We have a relationship with China that, uh, we're not happy with certain things that happened over the last period of time ... we'll be just fine."

TRUMP: "The federal government has absolute power. It has the power. As to whether or not I'll use that power -- we'll see ... I have an absolute right."

Asked about Biden, Trump still tries some H1N1 whataboutism -- even though more people have died in a much more compressed period of time from coronavirus

TRUMP: "We're having a religious leaders committee...you've been seeing what's going on at the churches...we're gonna to have a few committees, & then ultimately we're gonna make decisions & we're gonna make them fairly quickly & I think they're going to be the correct decisions"

Trump closes with some thoughts on his friend Stanley Chera, who died from coronavirus: "He thought we'd do such a good job and he was so happy, and he was very proud of what we have done in this administration. But he was tested positive, & unfortunately he didn't make it."

"The only thing I can tell you is that I will give him the advice based on evidence -- you can tell Dr. Fauci is exasperated with Trump

"I don't want to have anything taken out of context, b/c I already one of those in the last couple days, so I don't want to go through it again. Could things have been done better? Of course" -- Fauci on the Covid response & Trump getting mad at him for pointing out the obvious

The April 13 White House coronavirus task force briefing finally ended -- nearly 3 hours and 15 minutes after its scheduled start time.

Trump's latest coronavirus press briefing began with an epic meltdown and ended with the ramblings of an aspiring dictator https://www.vox.com/2020/4/13/21219966/trump-coronavirus-press-briefing-meltdown-total-control-states-rights