New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pleaded with the federal government to ship at least 30,000 ventilators that may be needed by the time the coronavirus outbreak peaks later this month or early next month, but Trump recently said he doesn't believe the state will actually need that many and he has refused to deliver them.
Trump did not come to that conclusion on his own, however, according to Vanity Fair.
Jared Kushner, who is more or less running the show (not Mike Pence) according to their reporting, told Trump that New York won't need that many ventilators based on his own projections.
Jared Kushner, who’s often been in competition with Trump’s chiefs of staff, continues to be the central West Wing player, leading a shadow coronavirus task force that is more powerful than the official group led by Vice President Mike Pence. In conversations Kushner has blamed HHS Secretary Alex Azar for the criticism Trump has received, according to a person in frequent touch with the West Wing. “This was a total mess,” Kushner told people when he got involved last month. “I know how to make this government run now,” he said, according to a source. [...]
Kushner encouraged Trump to push back against New York governor Andrew Cuomo after Cuomo gave an emotional press conference during which he said New York was short 30,000 ventilators. In a White House meeting around this time, Kushner told people that Cuomo was being an alarmist. “I have all this data about ICU capacity. I’m doing my own projections, and I’ve gotten a lot smarter about this. New York doesn’t need all the ventilators,” Kushner said, according to a person present.
Jared Kushner is not an epidemiologist, but he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Governor Cuomo is in the middle of the world's epicenter. He has access to real-time information that even the federal government doesn't have and he's being advised by some of the most qualified people in the entire world. Jared Kushner, on the other hand, stayed up late last night reading whatever he was able to print off the internet.
In hindsight, maybe more effort should have been taken to oust Jared Kushner from the White House at some point over the past few years. In some ways he's even more unaccountable than Trump or anyone else is and he's contributing to death and suffering just the same. Kushner is actually an idiot, but there's no one around the White House who can say that because Kushner is Trump's son-in-law and personal handler.