Donald Trump speaks as Vice President Mike Pence looks on during a briefing on the coronavirus pandemic in the press briefing room of the White House

Here’s the Next Thing Donald Trump Will Definitely Deny Ever Having Said

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Update 3/30: Well, that took a whole three days.

Donald Trump called into Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Thursday night to talk about what a great job he’s been doing lately and also to accuse New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, of exaggerating the number of ventilators his state needs. Why does he think that? He just “has a feeling.”

“I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be,” Trump said. “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You know, you go into major hospitals sometimes, they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying can we order 30,000 ventilators?”

Cuomo has been openly critical of the federal response to coronavirus containment and treatment. New York has been hit harder than any other state and is seeing a massive shortage of medical equipment.

Trump responded to those pleas by sending the state 400 ventilators. “Four hundred ventilators? I need 30,000 ventilators. You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators?” Cuomo said at a press conference this week. “What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000 ventilators? You’re missing the magnitude of the problem, and the problem is defined by the magnitude.”

Trump later sent another 4,000 ventilators, but not before insulting Cuomo’s leadership.

Trump’s claim that he doesn’t believe New York needs that many ventilators is the exact kind of thing he’s sure to deny ever having said in a week or so. Just like his belief that the coronavirus is a “hoax,” I’m calling it now: we’re going to see some angry tweets or maybe a Kellyanne Conway press tour soon blaming the “lamestream media” for making this up.

By the way, Trump is already pivoting to finding other things and people to blame for the ventilator shortage so “I don’t believe you” may have just been a momentary blip. Now he’s blaming General Motors.

He’s really flailing, isn’t he?

He’s also pushing a conspiracy theory going around that New York is hiding ventilators in a warehouse.

At least Cuomo is taking the high road in this mess.

(image: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.