It's Brian Lehrer, and this is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Wednesday, April 1st.

President Trump's approval ratings have been going up during the coronavirus crisis. Many of you

may not know that because many people

in our area are watching his daily briefings with, let's face it, some disgust. First, he downplays the

threat. Then a few days later, he acknowledges the seriousness, but says we're doing well in fighting

it because he recognized it early. That's one pattern. You've heard

all those clips. Another pattern is that if a mainstream reporter asks a mainstream question

about his reluctance to act or the rosy picture he keeps painting, he paints the rosy picture

again and calls the reporter something like a wise guy or a cutie pie.

Here's one example from a few days ago.

After Governor Cuomo sounded an alarm about the president not ordering manufacturers to make enough ventilators for New York, ABC News Chief White House correspondent Jonathan

Carl raised the question with the president.

Here's how that went.

You're able to guarantee it to assure these states, these hospitals that everybody who needs

a ventilator will get a ventilator. So here's what I'll tell you. I think we're in really good

shape. This is a pandemic, the likes of which nobody's seen before. I think we're in great shape. I think that

number one, we've distributed, ventilator is a big deal. We've distributed vast numbers of

ventilators and we're prepared to do vast numbers. I think we're in great shape. I hope that's

the case. I hope that we're going to have leftovers so we can help

other people, other countries. Everybody who needs one will be able to get a ventilator. Look, look,

don't be a cutie pie, okay? You know, everyone who needs one. Nobody's ever done what we've done.

Nobody's done anything like we've been able to do. And everything I took over was a mess. It was a

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