The depths of depravity and corruption that were involved in the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic would take literal months to fully dive into and pick apart. The former president spent his time in office throughout the pandemic playing politics and favorites and catering to those who served him best. While it’s impossible to list the countless examples of Trump’s ineptitude for running a country, especially through a global crisis, a new book has shed a light on one particular instance of such that will likely make your stomach churn.
ABC News chief White House correspondent Jon Karl has published a new book, Front Row at the Trump Show, out on Tuesday that features new details on Donald Trump’s March 2020 decision to divert a Navy hospital ship away from Seattle where it was deployed to help the city meet their desperate needs after their hospitals had been overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases, according to excerpts of the tell-all published in POLTICO’s Playbook.
According to the book, then-President Trump sent the ship to California instead, due in large part to Washington’s governor’s criticism of the way Trump was handling the pandemic.
Karl reports Trump telling advisors, “Don’t you think we should send it to California? Gavin has been saying such nice things about me.”
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Trump was allegedly angry with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, deeming him a “showboater” and “a real jerk” and wanted to instead send the ship to California to reward Gov. Gavin Newsom for his compliments regarding the administration’s response to the pandemic.
Inslee’s criticism of the then-President came in February of 2020 as the novel virus first began to take over the States:
I just received a call from @VP Mike Pence, thanking Washington state for our efforts to combat the coronavirus.
I told him our work would be more successful if the Trump administration stuck to the science and told the truth.
— Jay Inslee (@JayInslee) February 28, 2020
The Mercy Navy hospital ship arrived in Los Angeles in late March to help alleviate the strain on hospitals as the virus began to boom and returned to San Diego in May after treating 77 non-COVID patients.
Former Trump official Olivia Troye said, “Lives were at risk. Politics at play. He didn’t care,” going on the add that the hospital “was being used as a political pawn.”
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
