The most notable addition to the president’s preferred social media feed was a black-and-white photo posted Monday afternoon showing him modeling a face mask, a personal mitigation measure Trump had long been reluctant to practice.

“There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President!” he wrote online.

The president seems poised to reprise those rosy sentiments Tuesday evening, when he is slated to resume his appearances at the White House’s televised coronavirus news conferences.

Trump revealed Monday that he would return to the podium for a coronavirus briefing after a nearly three-month hiatus. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Tuesday the future sessions with reporters were “going to be short” affairs taking place “most days,” after which the president would answer questions.

“We have a lot of plans over the next three months,” she told Fox News, previewing “very newsy briefings with a lot of information the American people want to hear.” McEnany is also scheduled to hold her own press briefing Tuesday morning.

This week has also seen a brief détente in the president’s feud with his own health officials, after the White House rebuked CDC guidance for reopening schools and waged a smear campaign against Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, in recent days.

Although Trump did deem the doctor to be “a little bit of an alarmist” during an interview Sunday in which he again downplayed the nature of the pandemic’s threat, Fauci appeared optimistic Tuesday about the White House’s plans to restart its coronavirus briefings. “I think if we do this and we do it right, it will be very informative for the American public,” he told NPR.

But Surgeon General Jerome Adams said it was still unclear how he and other senior members of the administration’s coronavirus task force would factor into Trump’s briefing Tuesday. “They’re still figuring that out. I know that as they resume, we will be there in our different roles,” he told CBS News.

The apparent shift in the administration’s messaging comes as state and local leaders continue to wrestle with record numbers of Covid-19 cases exacerbated by rampant community spread, while Trump’s reelection team reckons with the latest public polling showing him trailing former Vice President Joe Biden less than four months from Election Day.

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