The coronavirus has continued to spread across the country, infecting more than 100,000 people, devastating the economy, and putting millions out of work. The nation is terrified, caught in the thrall of a mysterious, ever-changing pandemic. But Donald Trump has found a silver lining: His press conference ratings have never been better.

Yes, per his recent tweets, the president has been fixated on the number of people who have been watching his daily press conferences regarding coronavirus. You know, the pressers where he can’t stop berating reporters who are just doing their jobs, and walking back his own erroneous claims that the country should get back to work by Easter—as if this whole pandemic were just the plot of a faith-based movie that would rectify itself in a snappy two weeks. Trump went on a Twitter tear Sunday afternoon, quoting a New York Times article that notes his daily pressers average 8.5 million viewers—about the equivalent of this year’s season finale of The Bachelor. And because he can’t help himself, Trump also tweeted that the rise in ratings is driving the media “CRAZY.”

Who’s the alleged “lunatic”? We’ll never know! Trump’s quoted snippets were from a Times article by reporter Michael M. Grynbaum. In the article Grynbaum writes that Trump’s pressers are “a ratings hit” on par with The Bachelor and Monday Night Football. However, Trump conveniently left out the point of Grynbaum’s article: that the pressers are dangerous because the president “has repeatedly delivered information that doctors and public health officials have called ill informed, misleading, or downright wrong.” In addition, the rise in viewership is due to nervous Americans simply trying to learn how much the deadly virus has spread—not because of the president’s charisma, or his unique draw as a TV figure, or whatever else he may attribute it to in his head.

Trump’s first love has always been and always will be TV ratings. Ever since his Apprentice days, he’s developed a compulsive need to talk about these numbers, going out of his way to make up stats about how high his ratings are and even suggesting content-rating systems for things that already have them (like movies and video games). Even in the midst of a pandemic that is ravaging the nation, Trump can’t help but find a way to bring everything back to viewership, bragging about how the virus has yielded something good for him. Perhaps one of his advisers can suggest that he read the room. Then again, reading has never been Trump’s strong suit.

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