Masked

On Saturday the Washington Post broke the story (link here) about how the United States, with the Trump administration's blessing, sent millions of face masks and other medical equipment to China earlier this year when coronavirus began threatening the United States.

"U.S. manufacturers shipped millions of dollars’ worth of face masks and other protective medical equipment to China in January and February with encouragement from the federal government," the article reports. "The move underscores the Trump administration’s failure to recognize and prepare for the growing pandemic threat."

"In those two months, the value of protective masks and related items exported from the United States to China grew more than 1,000 percent compared with the same time last year — from $1.4 million to about $17.6 million... Similarly, shipments of ventilators and protective garments jumped by triple digits."

Now, flash forward to April, and the Trump administration has been busy seizing individual states' orders of ventilators, masks, and other medical equipment for stockpiling, notwithstanding the President has claimed he's been sending supplies to the states. At least six states to date have seen their supplies that they paid for themselves seized (details here).

It's gotten so bad that one state, Illinois, organized secret missions to acquire and ship masks, gloves, and other medical equipment so the Trump administration couldn't grab them (details here). Things have gotten pretty bad when states have to smuggled critically needed medical supplies to their own hospitals.

Throw this on the already massive pile of reasons why Donald Trump must be defeated in November.