The power of centralized purchasing is that major customers get better bargaining power by being a major customer. That’s why it’s in the national interest for the federal government to buy (and stock) emergency materials on behalf of the states before and during emergencies. It keeps states from bidding against one another in efforts to buy things directly, particularly when supplies are limited as they are now. In cases of emergency, in fact, centralized purchasing also allows total demand to be accounted for, so that the allocation of emergency supplies can match the needs nationally, across state borders. If all fifty states need to stockpile supplies independent of one another rather than in coordination, it exacerbates shortages at much higher cost.
So of course Donald Trump told the states they’re on their own. Because Littlefinger simply cannot NOT make any situation worse.
Having the Feds coordinate both the manufacture ramp-up and the distribution of emergency supplies is frankly, one of the many things the U.S. government is good at. But it requires coherent directions from the top. And clearly the Kremlin Trump administration lacks the leadership capacity to do anything on behalf of the American people. They’re too busy scheming this opportunity to get handouts through emergency relief funds for the hospitality industry.
Donald Trump is an overt bozo with a lifelong record of selfishness and dishonesty. Who ever could have imagined that electing such a man as POTUS would cost us all so dearly? Oh yeah, Democrats.