Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) says President Donald Trump “proved who he really is” in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic — as Trump allegedly agreed to send the state lifesaving equipment only if Pritzker showed him fealty on national television.
Pritzker recalled Wednesday at an event for the Center for American Progress that U.S. companies at the time were price-gouging governments, hospitals, police and fire departments as people were dying — and said the president didn’t seem to mind.
“He could have fought for us,” Pritzker said onstage. “He really could have. Instead, he made self-serving deals. He would send life-saving equipment if only we would agree to praise him on the Sunday talk shows. That is literally a deal that he put in front of me.”
“I was desperate,” he continued. “My hospitals were filling up. And time was of the essence, so I agreed that I would do that if he sent me what we needed. Because my job at the time was to do virtually anything to get the White House to help us save lives.”
One year after the pandemic began ravaging America in March 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. topped 550,000. It was the third leading cause of death in the country, displacing suicide from the top 10.
More than 1.2 million Americans have died from the disease since 2020, per the CDC.
Trump launched Operation Warp Speed in spring 2020 to accelerate the development, manufacturing and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, but claimed in October that the virus “affects virtually nobody” after more than 220,000 Americans had already died.
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The president himself received coronavirus vaccinations in January 2021 before leaving the White House. He has since joined a substantial chorus casting doubt on various vaccines, and is now pulling federal funding from schools that require COVID-19 vaccinations.
Pritzker slammed Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk on Wednesday for gutting federal agencies through the Department of Government Efficiency to slash supposedly wasteful public spending, but said Trump had already shown his true colors years ago.
“Needless to say, he never delivered for us,” Pritzker said onstage. “He never delivered for the American people. And Donald Trump proved who he really is in that critical moment. Is it incompetence or is it treachery? Which one? In 2025, he’s proving it’s both.”
