March 31: On This Day In 2020
A few weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, the impacts of Trump’s earlier foolish actions were becoming clear. Trump hadn’t stocked our nation’s reserves, and he had closed the office of pandemic readiness. So now supplies for essential workers were running low.
In response to his predicament, Trump set up an “eBay” style platform for states to bid against each other for handouts from the White House strategic reserve. Almost like the Hunger Games. What happened if a state got outbid by another? Well…too bad, they would have to find their equipment elsewhere. So, states resorted to scrounging for gear from overseas so their citizens could be safe.
What could go wrong? A lot. Vanity Fair put it this way OTDI 2020: “The State-led Scramble for Coronavirus Supplies Is Not Going Well…In the absence of adequate federal support, states are having to fend for themselves to get the medical equipment they need—and the Trump administration is making a hard situation even worse.”
“’Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment—try getting it yourselves,’ Trump told governors during a conference call on March 16… That strategy, however, is only resulting in more chaos—and the federal government may be making things worse,” they continued.
Anguished governors began pleading with Trump. For example, NJ Gov. Phil Murphy begged: “We are desperate,” he said. “We’ve had a big ask into the strategic stockpile in the White House. They’ve given us a fraction of our ask.”
But Trump helps Red states more than Blue states: “Trump is also playing states off one another for his affection, rewarding the generally Republican (or swing) states whose governors grovel at Trump’s feet and punishing the generally Democratic states that speak the truth about Trump’s failures...,” observed Joshua Geltzer, former senior director for counterterrorism and a deputy legal adviser at the National Security Council.
Dive deeper
Politico’s original reporting on the desperate need is here
NBC analyzed Trump’s entire approach to PPE distribution
They quote Murphy in this article
The Washington Post ran Geltzer’s piece
Summary: Trump Creates “Hunger Games” for Covid Protection. Forced states to bid against each other for PPE