Trump vs. governors: The White House’s selective pandemic support
The president has criticized governors’ COVID-19 responses — and they’ve criticized his. But flattery goes a long way for federal relief.
The federal government is scrambling to contain the coronavirus pandemic, from lowering interest rates to ordering more ventilators to suspending travel to other nations — not to mention the trillions of dollars in relief the Trump administration signed into law.
And states have been ensuring resident safety, from declaring national disasters to ordering residents to shelter in place.
President Donald Trump criticized some governors’ responses, both to the crisis and himself at this time. On March 26, he hosted a video call with most of the states’ gubernatorial leaders, receiving a mixed bag of praise and criticism.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, chair of the National Governors Association, said that his state needed more help, but remained appreciative. Governor Henry McMaster said South Carolina was running low on supplies, but was relatively optimistic of the White House’s response.
Meanwhile, Governor Jay Inslee said Washington was “desperate for supplies,” to which the president said the federal government and its medical supplies were meant to be a back up.
“The point I want to make is I don’t want you to be the back-up quarterback, we need you to be Tom Brady here,” Inslee said.
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser was furious over the fact that the District was listed as a territory, meaning they would only get $500 million in aid versus the $1.5 billion apportioned for a state. Washington D.C. has a higher population than both Vermont and Wyoming — and far more COVID-19 cases than both of those states combined.
The virus has penetrated 183 countries and regions; there are more than 1,264,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and over 69,000 deaths worldwide as of April 5, according to Johns Hopkins’ Center for Systems Science and Engineering live tracker. In the U.S., there have been over 331,200 recognized cases — the most of any country in the world — across all states; the death toll surpasses 9,500.
Other governors, like Jim Justice of West Virginia and Gavin Newsom of California, were much more appreciative of the president’s efforts in recent weeks. Even New York Governor Andrew Cuomo praised the president, as his state grapples with major coronavirus fallout and the most cases in the nation by far. Toward the end of the call, Cuomo said, “I want to just say we all stand with you. The governors are not a hyper-political, hyper-partisan group. We all represent the people of our state.”
Some of those appreciative remarks were featured in a Trump campaign video for the 2020 election, no doubt done to help convince voters that the White House’s response is more helpful than it appears in day-to-day coverage.
But one relationship which might spell trouble come Election Day is the disparaging one the president has with Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. The two have traded jabs over the last few weeks as Whitmer, who has stayed generally silent on the president, went on the attack after he ignored the mounting coronavirus cases in her state. Michigan had not been approved for state-of-emergency funding nor been sent back-up medical supplies by the federal government despite her plea before last week’s call.
After the Michigan disagreement, the president went on Sean Hannity and belittled the governor, saying “We’ve had a big problem with the young, a woman governor — you know who I’m talking about — from Michigan.” Whitmer responded on Twitter.
And the spat continued. Whitmer told CNN on Friday that, after Trump had asked governors to procure their own medical supplies, her state had placed a large number of orders with suppliers — only to be told later that they had been instructed to send the items to the federal government instead.
The president then approved major disaster declarations for South Carolina and Puerto Rico, but not Michigan, suggesting that areas which praise the federal government’s response are more likely to earn assistance.
Since then, Whitmer confirmed that she had spoken with Vice President Mike Pence and thanked the White House for its major disaster declaration.
Some of Trump’s allies have warned against attacking the Whitmer, saying it would hurt Trump’s chances in Michigan come November. The president barely won the state four years ago, capturing a victory by 11,000 votes out of the more than 4.5 million that were cast there. Michigan is a swing state in the next election and the president’s campaign and super PACs have begun to funnel money into the campaign effort there.
Only time will tell if the coronavirus responses by both Trump and state leaders will help or hurt them in elections — in 2020 and beyond.
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