Trump: States Get Help Only If They “Treat Me Well”

The Daily Beast reports:

As the coronavirus pandemic has deepened, Democratic governors bearing the heaviest burdens are increasingly wary that if they complain too loudly about the federal response they will anger Donald Trump and risk losing critical support during a life-or-death crisis. The latest evidence of the delicate, sometimes impossible, line that these governors have been forced to walk came on Tuesday, when the president took swipes at New York Governor Andrew Cuomo during a televised town-hall-style program with Fox News.

“I watched Gov. Cuomo [today] and he was very nice,” the president said of the man steering the state hardest hit by the virus. Cuomo had, moments earlier, conducted a press conference in which he scoffed at how insufficient the administration’s help in procuring ventilators had been. Trump would go on to insist he was not blaming Cuomo. But the magnanimity was short lived. “It’s a two-way street,” Trump said of having the feds help states with a coronavirus response policy. “They have to treat us well, too.”

Read the full article.

NEW: White House official tells The Beast that Trump’s problems with New York stem from Cuomo not being “good and respectful” enough to Trump. https://t.co/Uhsg6COBu6

— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) March 25, 2020

Gov. Cuomo’s daily pressers are clear-eyed, sober, fact-based briefings. Trump’s pressers? When asked by a reporter what data he is relying on to “reopen” the country by Easter, Trump replies, “I just think it’s a beautiful day to reopen government.” We’re in trouble, friends.

— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) March 24, 2020

Notable that Trump has a confrontational relationship with each of the three hot zone governors. Each has gone out of his way to praise Trump because they know they need to to get critical aide. Very clear federal support is being held up because these aren’t “his people”.

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 25, 2020