US President is Back, to re-up virus briefings amid lagging polls.

US President is Back, to re-up virus briefings amid lagging polls..

President Donald Trump is set to once again take centre stage in the government’s COVID-19 response after a White House debate over how best to deploy its greatest and most volatile asset — him — played out in public as his poll numbers falter.

One week after a campaign shake-up, the plan is for Trump to again become a regular public presence at the podium starting Tuesday as confirmed COVID-19 cases spike nationwide.

Trump advisers have stressed the urgency of the President adopting a more disciplined public agenda in an effort to turn around his lagging poll numbers against Democratic rival Joe Biden.

“I think it’s a great way to get information out to the public,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, saying he hopes to discuss progress on vaccines and therapeutics.

His once-daily turns behind the White House briefing room podium largely ended in late April after the President’s off-the-cuff suggestion that injecting toxic disinfectant could help treat COVID-19.

In another sign of recalibration, Trump belatedly tweeted a photo of himself in a face mask Monday, calling it an act of patriotism, after months of resistance to being publicly seen in the coverings deemed vital to slowing the spread of the virus as a sign of weakness.