President Donald Trump wants state governors to praise him more publicly and be more publicly "appreciative" of him if they want him to release badly needed federal aid and supplies they urgently need to combat the COVID-19 crisis that's made the U.S. the world's most infected coronavirus country.
Trump publicly aired this blatant blackmail threat Thursday at the White House daily press briefing. He also said he told vice president Mike Pence, who heads his coronavirus task force, not to reach out to governors that aren't "appreciative" of Trump's efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 in their states.
"All I want them to do, very simple, I want them to be appreciative," demanded Trump. "I don't want them to say things that aren't true. I want them to be appreciative. We've done a great job."
The president blasted Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (both Democrats) that have criticized his actions that have slowed down the federal government's response to COVID-19. Trump's inept leadership is one of the factors why the U.S. now has the largest number of COVID-19 cases in the world.
As of 05:22 GMT, Saturday, the U.S. reported 104,256 confirmed cases and 1,704 deaths, according to real-time data tracking website, Worldometer. Italy has the world's second number of cases at 86,498 but the largest number of deaths at 9,134. China is third on the infected list with 81,394 cases and has 3,295 deaths.
Trump told Pence to not bother to call governors that don't praise him.
"If they don't treat you right, I don't call," said Trump. "I think they should be appreciative. Because you know what? When they're not appreciative to me, they're not appreciative to the Army Corps [of Engineers], they're not appreciative to FEMA. It's not right," said Trump, who by doing so is taking sole credit for the efforts of federal agencies combating the coronavirus.
Trump told a manufactured story about Pence, who he claims "calls all the governors. And I tell him, I'm a different type of person, and I say, 'Mike, don't call the governor of Washington. You're wasting your time with him."
"Don't call the woman in Michigan. It doesn't make any difference what happens," said Trump.
Trump said Inslee "should be doing more" and "shouldn't be relying on the federal government." He brushed aside New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's urgent requests for more ventilators to keep patients alive, saying, "I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000" of the ventilators, which force air into the lungs of patients unable to breathe properly.
He said he was still weighing Whitmer's request for a disaster declaration, saying, "We've had a big problem with the young, a woman governor from, you know who I'm talking about, from Michigan."
"You know, we don't like to see the complaints."
Inslee responded to Trump's remarks in a tweet, saying he wasn't going to "let personal attacks from the president distract me from what matters: beating this virus and keeping Washingtonians healthy."
The White House and Pence's office did not immediately respond to requests from media asking them to explain why federal aid to combat COVID-19 depends on governors first praising Trump to high heavens publicly.
