Trump to governors: Try getting respirators for coronavirus patients yourselves

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Governors across the United States are scrambling to make sure their health care systems have enough respirators to help people diagnosed with the coronavirus, but President Trump surprised them Monday by telling them not wait for the federal government, The New York Times reports.

"Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment — try getting it yourselves," Trump reportedly told the governors during a conference call.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.