Coronavirus: Trump says Obama left stockpile 'bare' even though he did not fill it

Donald Trump on Thursday said the Obama administration handed over control in January 2017 of a federal stockpile of crucial medical equipment that was "bare," but it remained that way until recent months even as coronavirus spread across the country.

The president used his latest trip to the political battleground state to put pressure on its governor, Democrat Tom Wolf, to lift his stay-at-home order. Mr Trump contended there are sections of the Keystone State that could get back to something resembling normal life, but Mr Wolf has not yet opened them. "Can't do that," the president said. He did not, however, say whether he would seek to force Mr Wolf to give such an order.

But his main message was to blast the Obama administration.

"The cupboards were bare when we came into this administration," Mr Trump told workers at a medical supply distribution facility in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

"Under the previous administration, most of the stockpile was depleted and never refilled," Mr Trump said, alleging the Obama administration did not purchase new face masks after the H1N1 outbreak.

But neither did his administration during his first three years in office.

"We were, we were given very little when we came into this administration," Mr Trump told reporters as he left the White House earlier in the day. He claimed his administration has "done a fantastic job."

There are at least 85,000 people dead in the United States due to Covid-19, according to The Johns Hopkins University.

Mr Trump did not explain in his remarks at the facility just why his administration did not refill any depleted supplies of potentially life-saving equipment. He pledged to "build a stockpile" that is the envy of the world.

Earlier Thursday, his aides said they intend to bring medical supply chains back to US soil, a likely uphill climb with private firms.

"We're far too dependent on other countries," the "America First" president said in the Keystone state. "I said, 'How about investing in our country?' ... We had a bunch of globalists who didn't know what the hell they were doing."

And even as some GOP senators call for substantially more Covid-19 tests, Mr Trump mused that "maybe testing is overrated. ... If we didn't do testing, we wouldn't have so many cases."

Mr Trump was pictured during a tour of the facility not wearing a mask. All company officials were wearing protective face coverings, as were members of his administration and staff. That included Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.

'Sleepy Joe'

The move shows again how Mr Trump is using the virus to signal to his base to continue to pressure state officials to open their economies. He might need the coronavirus-hobbled economy to bounce back if he hopes to secure a second term. But even with record low unemployment, a new CNN-SSRS poll released Thursday shows 54 per cent of those surveyed trust him to run the economy over former Vice President Joe Biden (42 per cent).

The president was back in Pennsylvania, a state he needs to hold after narrowly winning it in 2016. He visited the Keystone State eight times in 2018, five times in 2019, and two previous times in 2020.

RealClearPolitics' average of several prominent polls gives Mr Biden a 6.5 per cent lead in his native state.

It is swing voter-rich places, like Lehigh County that political operatives say will help determine who is president in January 2021.

In 2008, Barack Obama won the county with 57 per cent to the late Sen. John McCain's 42 per cent. Obama took Lehigh four years later over now-Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, 53 per cent to 45 per cent. And in the last election, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton narrowly beat Trump by 5 points, 51 per cent to 46 per cent.

In Allentown, Mr Trump took a few jabs at "Sleepy Joe Biden," getting a few chuckles from the workers there, who were socially distanced in folding chairs on the plant floor.

Officially, this was not a campaign trip. Mr Trump was at the medical supply distribution facility to deliver remarks about changes to the national strategic stockpile, which includes medical equipment and supplies.

The federal government struggled early in the pandemic response because its stockpile lacked ample masks, gloves, ventilators and other life-saving items. Along with state and local governments, the federal government was forced to purchase them -- the race for the necessary items created stiff competition as the governments jockeyed against each other to buy them.

The administration is aiming to create what a senior administration official earlier on Thursday called a "90-day supply" of critical medical items.

The White House also wants to ensure that production lines for such items are on US soil, to ensure supplies during future health crises and jobs for Americans.

"We don't make a lot of these products in Americans," the senior administration official said, noting the goal is to enter into new "relationships" with companies. But the official did not make clear how the administration intends to compel private-sector firms to bring their production lines to the US -- and keep them here and humming after the coronavirus, in the president's word, "leaves."