Trump says 'don't be a cutie pie' as reporter presses him on shortage of ventilators in US
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to grip the United States, President Donald Trump chose to be cheeky in response to a question about the shortage of ventilators in the country during the White House briefing on March 27. “Don't be a cutie pie,' Trump told ABC News White House correspondent Jonathan Karl who repeatedly pressed him over the availability of ventilators.
“‘Everyone who needs one’,” Trump said, mocking the correspondent. “Nobody's ever done what we've done. Nobody's done anything like we've been able to do. And everything I took over was a mess.”
The reporter posed the question after Trump announced that the United States is ready to supply a large number of ventilators needed by its friends and allies in their fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Trump said when he spoke with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been tested positive for the coronavirus, the first thing that the latter told him was about the shortage of ventilators.
“Johnson was asking for ventilators today. Unfortunately, he tested positive. And that's a terrible thing, but he's going to be great. I'm sure he's going to be totally great. But they want ventilators. Italy wants ventilators, Spain wants ventilators, Germany wants ventilators,” said Trump. “They're all calling for ventilators. Well, we're going to make a lot of ventilators and we'll take care of our needs, but we're also going to help other countries.”
In fact, Trump said that the US might not need that many ventilators. “I think frankly there is a great chance that we are not going to need that many. There are a lot of other people who are going to need them and we have countries all over the world that are friends of ours and we will help them,” he said. “We are in a position to do things that other countries can't so we have sort of an interesting position. We can make them because we are going to be making over 100,000 pretty quickly so we can make them and if we donate them, that's okay because we can help Italy and the UK, especially Boris Johnson. I mean when I say how are you feeling and the first thing Boris said to me is we need ventilators.”
But the idea of Americans not needing more ventilators is not something everyone agrees with. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been pushing the White House to have more ventilators built, saying his state alone would need between 30,000 and 40,000 of the devices.
But Trump seemed unworried at the Friday briefing. Asked if the 100-day timeframe for manufacturing 100,000 ventilators would be quick enough for the country's needs as the virus rapidly spreads around the country, he said, “What we've done, nobody can even imagine. So here's what I tell you, I think we're in really good shape. This is a pandemic, the likes of which nobody's seen before. I think we're in great shape.”
Right now, the US has over 100,000 cases of COVID-19 and has seen more than 1,700 deaths from complications arising from it.