President Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at the news media for accurately reporting his remarks about New York officials being nice to him as a prerequisite for getting help with the coronavirus pandemic.
During a Fox News town hall on Tuesday, Trump attacked New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who earlier in the day sharply criticized the federal government's response to the pandemic.
“It's a two-way street,” Trump said of helping out New York during the crisis. “They have to treat us well, too.”
The president, however, insisted that he has been helping New York regardless of what he said just one day earlier.
"I am working very hard to help New York City & State," the president wrote on Twitter. "Dealing with both Mayor & Governor and producing tremendously for them, including four new medical centers and four new hospitals. Fake News that I won’t help them because I don’t like Cuomo (I do). Just sent 4000 ventilators!"
Trump's boast of sending ventilators comes just one day after Cuomo said that his state would need tens of thousands more to cope with surging caseloads in hospitals. Additionally, Cuomo on Tuesday said that the state had only received 400 ventilators so far, or ten times less than the number Trump claimed to have sent in his tweet.
"What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000?" Cuomo asked during a press briefing.