Over the past few days, much has been made about how Donald Trump has supposedly gone from dangerous clown to presidential figure when it comes to the government’s coronavirus response. Obviously people are saying such things because the bar was 6,000 feet under, and instead of telling Americans over and over again that the deadly disease is nothing to worry about, or that it’s “contained,” or that it’s a liberal hoax designed to hurt his reelection chances and they should ignore expert guidance and just keep congregating in large groups and shaking hands, he’s admitted the situation is “bad” and that active steps must be taken to slow the spread. Of course, Trump’s ability to hold it together for a press conference or two—likely because he’s terrified about what’s happening to the markets—does not actually mean anything. In reality he’s still the same dangerous clown he was on March 9, when he tweeted that “The Fake News Media & their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power to inflame the CoronaVirus situation,” and the same one he was on March 10, when he declared the deadly virus would just “go away.” We know this because (1) he likely did not get a personality transplant overnight, and (2) just today he gleefully bantered with a batshit-crazy reporter who claimed that “major media players…are consistently siding with foreign state propaganda, Islamic radicals, and Latin gangs and cartels” in an effort to take him down.

Yes, while an actually “presidential” president would have shot down that completely absurd statement, noting for all the world to hear that such a deranged theory had no basis in reality, and that the press was working hard to inform the public of the facts of the fast-moving pandemic, Trump instead took the opportunity to tacitly agree with the OAN reporter, Chanel Rion, and to attack the media.

Kicking her line of questioning off on a completely insane note, Rion asked: “Mr. President…Do you consider the term ‘Chinese food’ racist because it’s food that originates in China,” clearly trying to play a game of “gotcha” after Trump was called out for labeling COVID-19 the “Chinese virus” in a transparent attempt to whip his base into a frenzy. “I don’t think it’s racist at all,” Trump responded, smiling. “On that note,” Rion continued, “major left-wing news media, even in this room, have teamed up with Chinese Communist Party narratives, and they are claiming you are racist for making these claims about ‘Chinese virus.’ Is it alarming that major media players, just to oppose you, are consistently siding with foreign state propaganda, Islamic radicals, and Latin gangs and cartels, and they work right here out the White House with direct access to you and your team?”

Here, of course, was the moment for the supposedly measured Trump to prove that he was actually taking this thing seriously and not letting petty grievances or perceived slights dictate his response to the crisis. Instead he said this: “It amazes me when I read the things that I read. It amazes me when I read the Wall Street Journal, which is always so negative. It amazes me when I read the New York Times—I barely read it, you know we don’t distribute it in the White House anymore and the same thing with the Washington Post. Because you see, I know the truth. And people out there in the world, they really don’t know the truth, they don’t know what it is. They use different slogans and different concepts for me almost every week, trying to catch something. Last week it was ‘oh, chaos’; you see me, there’s no chaos. I have no chaos. I’m the one telling everybody to be calm. There’s no chaos at the White House. We have unbelievable professionals. It’s really, I mean, I think I came up with the term, I hope I came up with the term, but it is fake news. It’s more than fake news, it’s corrupt news.”