Donald Trump has once again claimed ratings for his coronavirus briefings were “through the roof” and criticised the “lamestream media” after MSNBC host Joe Scarborough mocked the president live-on air for wasting time on Twitter.

As US deaths from Covid-19 neared 43,000 on Tuesday, President Trump boasted that White House coronavirus briefings were more popular than all commercial programmes.

“I’ve had great ‘ratings’ my whole life, there’s nothing unusual about that for me,” wrote Mr Trump. “The White House News Conference ratings are ‘through the roof.”

With mounting criticism of his administration’s handling of the pandemic, the president has turned to TV ratings as evidence that he has managed the crisis well.

“It is amazing that I became President of the United States with such a totally corrupt and dishonest Lamestream Media going after me all day, and all night,” said Mr Trump in another tweet on Tuesday.

“Either I’m really good, far better than the Fake News wants to admit, or they don’t have nearly the power as once thought!”

It is the second time in less than two weeks that Mr Trump has tweeted at length about his TV ratings during the pandemic

Seemingly aware that his disapproval ratings were rising, Mr Trump turned to his ratings among Republicans in a third tweet on Tuesday morning as proof of his crisis response.

“96% Approval Rating in the Republican Party. Thank you! This must also mean that, most importantly, we are doing a good (great) job in the handling of the Pandemic,” tweeted Mr Trump.

Hours earlier, he had complained that the ‘Morning Joe’ programme showed “hatred and contempt” after it’s host, a former GOP member, addressed Mr Trump’s claims about coronavirus testing.

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“Watched the first 5 minutes of poorly rated Morning Psycho on MSDNC just to see if he is as ‘nuts’ as people are saying,” wrote Trump in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

“He’s worse. Such hatred and contempt!” he added. “I used to do his show all the time before the 2016 election, then cut him off. Wasn’t worth the effort, his mind is shot!”

Having seen the criticism on Twitter, Mr Scarborough then derided the president for lying on Twitter whilst on air.