Trump Was Right Again: NYC Forced to Scrap Equipment Former POTUS Told Them They Wouldn't Need Take this Politico headline from March 26, 2020: “Trump downplays need for ventilators as New York begs to differ.” “Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York says his state needs tens of thousands of ventilators to respond to the escalating coronavirus pandemic,” the article began. “President Donald Trump doesn’t believe him.” “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 during an appearance on Fox News, “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators. And now, all of a sudden, they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’” The “good guy” thusly accused Trump of “missing the magnitude of the problem.” “What am I going to do with 400 ventilators when I need 30,000?” Cuomo said during one of his daily media briefings. Well, guess what? The supposed bad guy was very right — and the massive outlay New York made to acquire ventilators and other COVID gear has turned the “necessary” equipment into expensive unused scrap metal, essentially. According to a Tuesday report nonprofit NYC digital outlet The City, Gotham has auctioned off more than $200 million of COVID gear, much of it apparently unused, for $500,000. This included $12 million in ventilators acquired at the behest of then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio — that sold for for $24,600. The prices were obtained by requesting information from private auction houses, The City reported; New York City government refuses to discuss the sales. And what wasn’t auctioned off at a huge loss was just given away, with surplus COVID gear sent to Ghana, Haiti, Indonesia, South Africa and Ukraine. “Much of this big sell-off is occurring because de Blasio waived the usual good government oversight of city contracts at the start of the pandemic. Former city Comptroller Scott Stringer, whose job was to make sure that the city gets what it’s paying for, was sidelined,” The City reported.
