US President Donald Trump has posted a storm of tweets railing against the Democrats, the Mueller investigation, the Hillary Clinton email scandal and the upcoming November election as he scrambles to get his re-election campaign back on track.
Mr Trump , after spending three days at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre battling COVID-19, and has his since, according to his physician, Dr Sean Conley.
In the past 24 hours, he has has posted more than 60 tweets, including retweets.
Among them, the president accused Fox News anchor Chris Wallace of “protecting” his Democratic rival Joe Biden in the first televised election debate last week.
In another tweet, Mr Trump railed against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who criticised the president for removing his mask in front of the cameras while infected with COVID-19.
The president made numerous references to the Mueller investigation into whether his administration colluded with Russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. The investigation concluded last year in March.
It comes as Mr Trump defied the COVID-19 virus, disastrous opinion polls and new economic turmoil on Tuesday in a stormy return from hospitalisation, while surging challenger Joe Biden appealed for Americans to unite against the "forces of darkness”.
There have been few tougher days for Mr Trump since he came to power after his shock 2016 election win.
Still being treated with a powerful cocktail of drugs for the coronavirus after three nights in hospital, he was scrambling to get his reelection campaign back on track ahead of the 3 November election, which is just four weeks away.
Latest polls forecast a huge victory for Mr Biden, with CNN giving the Democrat a national advantage of 57 per cent to 41 per cent among likely voters, with women voters going 66 to 32 per cent in his favour.
Mr Biden's advance comes as Mr Trump has been forced off the campaign trail after falling ill last Friday to the virus that has already killed some 210,000 Americans.
With what White House doctors describe as his rapid recovery, Mr Trump is doubling down on his controversial position that COVID-19 is taken too seriously, painting himself as a fighter who took on the virus and easily won.
After telling Americans in a speech from the White House balcony on Monday that they should stop fearing COVID-19 and "don't let it dominate you," he attacked the media on Tuesday for not paying more attention to what he said were his many successes.
"The Fake News Media refuses to discuss how good the Economy and Stock Market, including JOBS under the Trump Administration, are doing. We will soon be in RECORD TERRITORY," Mr Trump tweeted.
"All they want to discuss is COVID 19, where they won't say it, but we beat the Dems all day long, also!!!"
But Mr Trump is in trouble on almost every front and what used to be his strongest card - the economy - is not helping either.
The huge shock caused by this year's coronavirus shutdown has yet to dissipate, and on Tuesday there was more turmoil when Mr Trump halted negotiations in Congress on another stimulus package to save struggling businesses.
Mr Trump accused Democrats of seeking "to bailout poorly run, high crime, Democrat States" and said that negotiations could begin again only after the election - "after I win”.
Donald Trump removes his face mask as he salutes from the Truman Balcony at the White House following several days in hospital Source: ABACA
The Republican's hardball tactics drew a furious response from Mr Biden, who said Mr Trump "turned his back" on Americans struggling due to the crisis.
Battlefield call for unity
Mr Biden also stuck to his so-far successful strategy of appealing to a broad-based yearning for calm, with his visit to the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg to discuss saving "the soul of America”.
"The forces of darkness, the forces of division, the forces of yesterday are pulling us apart, holding us down and holding us back," Mr Biden said at the hallowed Pennsylvania grounds where Abraham Lincoln's Union forces won a decisive victory over Confederate troops in 1863.
"We can end this era of division, we can end the hate and the fear. We can be what we are at our best -- the United States of America," he said.
Mr Biden and Mr Trump are scheduled to square off again on 15 October 15, but Mr Biden told reporters: "If he still has COVID, we shouldn't have a debate".
US President Donald J. Trump (L) and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden (R) spar during the first 2020 presidential election debate Source: EPA
"It's a very serious problem, so I will be guided by... what the docs say is the right thing to do," Mr Biden said.
His running mate Kamala Harris, meanwhile, is set to debate Vice President Mike Pence in Utah on Wednesday, with a plexiglass barrier for coronavirus prevention between the two.
Giving Mr Biden another lift on Tuesday, popular former first lady Michelle Obama issued a 24-minute video address in which she branded Mr Trump "racist" and urged people to vote for Mr Biden "like your lives depend on it”.
White House COVID-19 spread
Mr Trump is working overtime to persuade voters that he is back to full strength despite his hospitalisation.
"FEELING GREAT!" he tweeted, also insisting that he is "looking forward" to holding a second scheduled debate against Mr Biden in Miami on 15 October.
And in a medical bulletin, the presidential doctor said Mr Trump "reports no symptoms" and "continues to do extremely well."
However, indicating the breadth of the coronavirus crisis overshadowing Mr Trump politically and now personally, a viral outbreak continued to sweep through his inner circle.
Top White House aide Stephen Miller confirmed on Tuesday that he had tested positive for COVID-19 and was in quarantine.
US media also reported that a military aide responsible for carrying the "nuclear football" - a briefcase containing information for the president to launch a nuclear attack while travelling - tested also positive over the weekend. The aide had travelled with Mr Trump to New Jersey on Thursday.
Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Mark Milley also went into quarantine following contact with an infected Coast Guard officer, a Pentagon source said.
There had been speculation, even among some Republicans, that Mr Trump might emerge from hospital chastened or at least with a new tone of empathy.
But on Twitter he returned to one of his oldest lines of argument used to downplay the seriousness of the pandemic, saying it was comparable to the ordinary flu and "we have learned to live with it”.
Twitter hid the tweet, saying that it broke the platform's rules on "spreading misleading and potentially harmful information".
