“I want them to be appreciative,” Trump said Friday after the
Yet Trump — who hours earlier had suggested the need for the devices was being overblown — rejected any criticism of the federal government's response to a ballooning public health crisis that a month ago he predicted would be over by now.
“We have done a hell of a job," Trump said, as he sent an ominous message to state and local leaders who have been urging the federal government to do more to help them save lives.
Trump said he had instructed Vice President
The comments came after Trump unveiled a slew of executive actions to bolster states' capacities to respond to the pandemic, including authorizing Defense Secretary
Friday's invocation “should demonstrate clearly to all that we will not hesitate to use the full authority of the federal government to combat this crisis," Trump said.
Trump had been saying for more than a week that he was reluctant to use the Defense Production Act — even after he invoked it — because companies were already doing what he wanted and he didn't need arm-twisting to make them comply.
Yet Trump continued to suggest that states' own failures were to blame for the needed intervention. “Normally these would be bought for states, just so you understand,” he said.
The nation's governors have been exerting growing pressure on the president to do more to bolster supplies, despite the perceived risks of speaking out. From
The notoriously thin-skinned Trump has not taken well to their criticism. Instead, he has lashed out at the governors, continued to diminish the risk posed by the virus and insisted that the federal government was only a “backup” as he looked to avoid political costs from a pandemic that has reshaped his presidency and tested his reelection plans.
In a Thursday night interview with Fox News’
“You know," he added from the
On Saturday, however, the
The administration's mantra, frequently articulated by
But Trump has show little public empathy for the states' predicament, with his emphasis skewed toward the "locally executed" portion of that trifecta.
Whitmer, in particular, has criticized the administration’s response to the pandemic –- including on national cable TV shows -- saying that the federal government should do more and that Michigan’s allotment of medical supplies from the national stockpile is meager.
“It’s very distressing,” the Democratic governor told radio station WWJ. “I observed early on, like a lot of governors on both sides of the aisle, that the federal preparation was concerning. That apparently struck a nerve, and I’ve been uniquely singled out despite my voice not being the only one that observed that," she said.
“I don’t go into personal attacks. I don’t have time for that,” she said. "I need partnership out of the federal government. We have to be all hands on deck here.”
Cuomo has also been on the forefront, some days criticizing the administration's failure to act and at other times commending federal assistance. But the
"That's what the data and the science said,” Cuomo said Friday as he defended his ask for additional ventilators and issued a new request to
“What is unclear to me is why the federal administration refuses to direct industries to manufacture critical PPE,”
“The governors have been very gracious, for the most part," Trump said Friday. But he complained that, “There are a couple that aren't appreciative” of the “incredible job” he claimed to be doing, adding: "They have to do a better job themselves, that's part of the problem.”
Just a month ago, Trump was predicting the
The Friday order Trump signed on
The reserve call-up likely is intended to fill gaps in medical expertise as the military deploys field hospitals to cities hard hit by COVID-19 and provides other forms of medical support to state and local authorities.
Trump also named trade adviser
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The vast majority recover.
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