That moment is when he was asked at a Covid press conference the softest of softball questions.

Peter Alexander, White House correspondent at NBC News, asked the US president: “What do you say to Americans, who are watching you right now, who are scared?” Erupting in anger, Trump unleashed a tirade: “I say that you’re a terrible reporter. That’s what I say. I think it’s a very nasty question and I think it’s a very bad signal that you’re putting out to the American people.”

He failed on the lesson of not letting a crisis go to waste. His only advantage is Americans, but particularly his base of supporters, don’t recognize these as failures or simply have a low retention for remembering anything.