Trump back to his old ways; tweets and touts questionable coronavirus theories

US President Donald Trump's new tone on the coronavirus pandemic disappeared on Tuesday in a burst of misleading medical speculation, criticism for his own top virus expert, and praise for an eccentric preacher-doctor touting conspiracy theories.

Trump, almost a week back, addressed national criticism of a leadership void in a crisis that has already killed nearly 150,000 Americans and wreaked havoc on the world's biggest economy. He admitted things were going to "get worse before they get better." He indicated he was embracing the science. He finally urged the wearing of masks.

But looks like all this was a short-lived affair. At a press conference in the White House on Tuesday, it was the old Trump in full display.

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The president said it was unfair that the leading US infectious diseases specialist Anthony Fauci was more popular than him.

"Nobody likes me," he said.

He pushed his theory that the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine can be used to treat COVID-19 patients.

And he praised Stella Immanuel, a doctor and preacher who believes in witchcraft and a plot being carried out to vaccinate people against being religious, calling her "spectacular."

To this end, Twitter took the rare step of removing clips tweeted by Trump from a video earlier deleted by Facebook in which Immanuel and a group of doctors told Americans that masks are unnecessary and that hydroxychloroquine can defeat the novel coronavirus.

Twitter said the video was "in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy."

Twitter also blocked Trump's son Don Jr -- a major player in the president's reelection campaign -- from tweeting for 12 hours after he uploaded a version of the video.

Trump has for months pushed the notion of hydroxychloroquine and says he took the drug for two weeks as a precaution, without suffering ill consequences. There is, however, currently no cure for the coronavirus. Also, a majority of medical authorities now have decided, after some initial debate, that hydroxychloroquine has no proven benefit for coronavirus patients and can be very harmful.

In his Twitter spree late Monday, the president also retweeted a growing right-wing conspiracy theory that Fauci helped push coronavirus to hurt Trump's reelection in November.

The tweet, shared by Trump to his 84 million followers, claimed that Immanuel is highlighting "what should be the biggest scandal in modern American history."

Trump also attacked Fauci by retweeting a comment on a podcast hosted by his former advisor Steve Bannon that Fauci "misled the American public on many issues."

Contary to this, however, Trump insisted on Tuesday at the press conference that he has "a very good relationship with Doctor Fauci."