As hospitals around America struggle to secure enough medical equipment to keep their doctors and nurses safe, Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States is shipping $100 million of “surgical and medical and hospital things” out of the country.
“We’re also sending things that we don’t need to other parts,” Trump said during his daily coronavirus informercial-slash-rally. “We’re going to be sending approximately $100 million worth of things, of surgical and medical and hospital things to Italy.”
Trump didn’t give an itemized list of what was being shipped abroad, but his announcement comes at a time when governors across the U.S. have been struggling to secure life-saving medical equipment.
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Trump announces that the United States is sending $100 million in “hospital things” out of the country even as medical workers in the U.S struggle to get life-saving gear. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/7XYznKa6fT
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) March 30, 2020
Trump said:
We’re also sending things that we don’t need to other parts. I just spoke to the prime minister of Italy, and we have additional capacity. We have additional product that we don’t need. We’re going to be sending approximately $100 million worth of things, of surgical and medical and hospital things to Italy. Giuseppe was very, very happy, I will tell you that.
Meanwhile, U.S. infections and fatalities continue to skyrocket
There is no question that the outbreak in Italy has been devastating. With each passing day, thousands more people contract the coronavirus and hundreds die.
But we’re now seeing the same trends develop in the United States as well, with America having the most coronavirus infections in the world and the number of deaths approaching 3,000 as of this writing.
All of this comes two years after Trump disbanded the White House pandemic team and just weeks after he publicly called the virus a Democratic hoax.
Now, in the midst of what appears to be a deadly shortage of medical equipment in the United States, Trump announces he’s shipping $100 million in supplies out of the country – more than a month after he sent 18 tons of PPE to China.
Donald Trump has failed the American people every step of the way during this crisis, and it will almost certainly cost lives.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.