NOW: @realDonaldTrump is holding a news conference. Follow along here.

. @realDonaldTrump opens with remarks that there is "big news" today, notes @PhilipRucker, @jonkarl & @kaitlancollins are present, calling them "the all-stars."

He is now bragging about how the US economy is least affected by COVID than any other nation (a lie).

"we're witnessing the fastest labor market recovery from an economic crisis in our history," @realDonaldTrump says.

The crisis is still ongoing and millions are still out of work.

. @realDonaldTrump is now rattling off some false claims about how the US is doing better than the EU, which has far fewer cases and deaths than the US.

"You don't hear these statistics, but the United States has done really well," @realDonaldTrump says.

The reason "you don't hear them" is because the U.S. has not "done really well" and almost 200,000 people here are dead.

. @realDonaldTrump is now repeating his frequent false claims about how children are at "extremely low risk" of COVID complications and demanding that schools re-open.

"There's nothing like being in the classroom," says @realDonaldTrump, who hired someone to take his college entrance exams for him and whose sister did his homework for him.

He's still obsessing about @bigten football (go @UWBadgers!)

The White House is displaying this slide (I know my screen grab is fuzzy) even as @UWMadison has quarantined two dorms and has over 1,000 new cases.

. @realDonaldTrump, who frequently uses a teleprompter during public appearances, asks @PhilipRucker why he is "not allowed to use a teleprompter."

He gets no reply.

. @realDonaldTrump, who once promoted the discredited theory that vaccines cause autism, is baselessly accusing @JoeBiden of being an "anti-vaxxer"

Trump now rambling on about the 2009 H1N1 swine flu, which has *not* killed almost 200,000 Americans.

. @realDonaldTrump now falsely claiming that @BarackObama and @JoeBiden were responsible for a "depleted stockpile."

It was the GOP-controlled Congress that refused to provide funding to replenish it after the 2009 H1N1 epidemic.

Trump repeating a baseless conspiracy theory about Hunter Biden circulated by disgraced ex- @TheHill opinion writer John Solomon, whose previous work attacking the ex-VP's son had to be retracted by his former employer.

Trump claims no US service deaths in Afghanistan since February of this year.

This a lie. There were casualties in May and July of this year.

Trump appears to forget the name of the head of the UAE.

. @realDonaldTrump claims he ended funding to the Palestinian Authority because they "didn't want to make peace."

He ended funding because he believed a fabricated video showing Mahmoud Abbas ordering murders, showed to him by @IsraeliPM in 2017. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/bob-woodward-book-rage-summary-trump-covid-tapes-b421650.html

. @jonkarl asks "why did you lie to the American people and why should we trust what you have to say?"

@realDonaldTrump calls it a "terrible question" and claims that @realBobWoodward would've broken his agreement and reported what he said if he'd actually lied.

(he lied)

. @realDonaldTrump says he said COVID was "like a flu" when he had told Woodward it was worse because he "wanted to show strength as a leader."

"There is no lie, here," he adds.

(HE LIED)

"There's no lying," @realDonaldTrump says, which is a bald-faced lie.

. @PhilipRucker asks @realDonaldTrump why he couldn't have "leveled with people" like Angela Merkel did with Germans.

Trump responds with deflections and false claims about the EU.

After @realDonaldTrump repeats the ridiculous claim that @realBobWoodward should've broken his agreement with the White House and warned "the authorities" about COVID, @PhilipRucker has to remind him that Woodward is not the President of the United States.

. @realDonaldTrump once again makes false claim that former Obama administration officials committed "treason," and is rattling off a list of grievances against former FBI officials.

Trump is now talking about his prodigious @FoxNews and @FoxBusiness watching habits: "I watch Liz McDonald she's fantastic I watched Fox Business, I watched lou Dobbs last night, Sean Hannity last night, Tucker last night, Laura. I watched fox and friends in the morning..."

Briefing ends/end thread