@ 5PM ...

It's the Daily Show @ 5 PM, you know, the one that seamlessly mixes COVID-19 updates from people who actually know a little bit about pandemics plus rants on god knows what from, you guessed it, Agent Orange, AKA The Donald, AKA the POTUS.

Donald Trump’s daily 5 p.m. show — officially described on the White House schedule as a press briefing by Members of the Coronavirus Task Force — was scheduled to start. It is at this surreal moment in American politics the only news event that really matters. The entire country is sitting at home looking for expert guidance. On some days, we get it. Early on when Dr. Anthony Fauci first explained the idea behind social distancing or when Dr. Deborah Birx introduced us all to the concept of bending the curve, the briefings were crucial— perhaps the closest thing in modern times to one of FDR's fireside chats during the Depression and World War II, a news briefing from government officials who your life actually depended on.

But they quickly descended into Trumpian theater. Useful information from the doctors became mixed in with long rants from Trump on peripheral issues. The relationship between Trump and the task force members themselves, especially Fauci, who became a media hero, gradually started to dominate the sessions, as if Trump couldn’t help but turn the crisis into a reality show about himself and his staff and his peculiar obsessions of the moment.

Read the rest of Politico's long and detailed piece. It will warm the cockles of your heart without question.