WASHINGTON • President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that the “nasty horrible’” coronavirus will get worse in the U.S. before it gets better, but he also tried to paint a rosy picture of efforts with governors to conquer the disease that has claimed more than 140,000 American lives in just five months.

He also professed a newfound respect for the protective face masks he has seldom worn. He pulled one from his pocket in the White House briefing room but didn’t put it on.

After a three-month hiatus from his freewheeling daily virus briefings, Trump returned to the podium, keeping the stage to himself without the public health experts who were staples of his previous events but keeping close to scripted remarks prepared by aides.

Besides declaring support for masks as a way to fight the pandemic, he admonished young people against crowding bars and spreading the disease.

It marked a delayed recognition by Trump that the economic reopening he’s been championing since April — and more importantly, his reelection — were imperiled by spiking cases nationwide.

There were no guarantees how long Trump’s more measured tone, delivered, with an eye to halting a campaign-season erosion of support, would last. Along the way Tuesday, the president still worked in jabs at the media and Democrats for focusing on disease-fighting shortcomings in the U.S. as the rest of world also struggles with the virus. He also belatedly addressed bipartisan criticism of virus-testing delays that have hampered reopening plans.

“It will probably unfortunately get worse before it gets better,” Trump said from the White House. But he also touted a reduction in deaths and progress on vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, which he referred to repeatedly as a the “China virus.”

“Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact,” he said. “I’m getting used to the mask,” he added, after months of suggesting that mask-wearing was a political statement against him.

Swaths of the country are now battling rising infections and growing deaths, and some states are once again having to close businesses and rethink school in the fall.

For months, the nation’s top health experts have pleaded with Americans to wear masks in public and steer clear of crowds — calling those simple steps life-saving — even as the president’s stance fueled a partisan social divide.

The early evening show at the White House came as the next stage of the federal government’s response to the pandemic was being crafted on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers and White House officials were opening negotiations on a trillion-dollar-or-more “phase four” rescue package.

For weeks, White House aides have pressed Trump to grow more disciplined in his public statements about the pandemic.

Little more than three months from Election Day, Trump and his team hoped the podium spotlight would give him an edge against Democratic rival Joe Biden.

As early as next week, the first possible U.S. vaccine is set to begin final-stage testing in a study of 30,000 people.

Health authorities warn there’s no guarantee — it’s not unusual for vaccines to fail during this critical testing step.

But vaccine makers and health officials hope that at least one vaccine could prove to work by year’s end.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told NPR Tuesday that he was glad Trump has begun to promote mask-wearing and expressed optimism the president would reinforce that message Tuesday.

Biden, for his part Tuesday, launched into scathing criticism of Trump as he outlined the latest plank of his economic recovery plan, charging that Trump “failed his most important test as an American president: the duty to care for you, for all of us.”

“He’s quit on you, he’s quit on this country,” Biden said.

President Donald Trump holds a mask as he speaks at the White House on Tuesday in Washington. “Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact,” he said.

The Associated Press