Playbook:

THE ROUTINE HAS BECOME QUITE ROUTINE. At around 5 p.m., the president takes to the podium at the White House. He says something ... how can we be charitable ... interesting, and around Washington and New York, email inboxes start buzzing.

WAIT, HE SAID WHAT?" says every editor and television producer to a chain of reporters and correspondents. Depending on their fortitude, reporters invariably reply something like this: "Ugh, this will never happen, and let me explain why."

It's typically a waste of energy, as breaking news alerts go out and red banners get splayed across TV's lower thirds.

THERE IS MOUNTING EVIDENCE -- a pile of it, in fact -- that President DONALD TRUMP enjoys releasing trial balloons, and doesn't mind when they float into the ether and explode out of sight. PUT MORE BLUNTLY, lots of times, his words are just words.

THE EVIDENCE:

-- THE PRESIDENT said he has "total" control over when, whether and how the country reopens. Just days later, he said he'd defer totally to governors.

- TRUMP and his allies have not been shy about urging states to reopen. Pockets of America will open at different times, he's said, and that is OK with him because it is up to local officials. But when BRIAN KEMP moved faster than any other gov, the president smacked him down

-- TRUMP said he would use the Constitution's power to unilaterally adjourn Congress because he was so frustrated with pace of confirmations. He never brought it up again, & this week, his Hill allies began pressing the case that Congress should come back into session immediately