As of April 2020 the US lacked enough coronavirus tests and test materials, including cotton swabs and common reagents.

True: contemporaneous evidence from around mid-April 2020 shows US shortages of three things: COVID-19 test capacity, testing swabs, and testing reagents. Mostly true: there were shortages of tests and of one of swabs or reagents, while the other was strained but less clearly short. Mixed: test capacity was short, but neither swabs nor reagents were documented as short. Mostly false: shortages were only local or had largely eased by April 2020. False: the evidence shows supplies of tests and materials were adequate nationally at the time.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Chart: Trump’s plan to reopen America can’t work without a massive surge in testing Vox · 17 April 2020

   “The recent slowdown in new tests is driven by shortages in nasal swabs, personal protective equipment, reagents, test kits, and machines needed to run the specific tests required.”

2. E2 Reopening business could bring ‘Wild West’ fight for supplies, as masks, thermometers and tests still not widely available | CNN Politics CNN · 20 April 2020

   “The American Hospital Association also noted that testing is still facing critical supplies shortages, with not enough swabs, transport media or reagents available to health care systems.”

3. E3 'Delusional': Governors call out White House on dearth of coronavirus testing as protests grow Los Angeles Times · 19 April 2020

   “Tests are carried out primarily by individual scientific laboratories and medical facilities in various states, and a number of governors have complained of shortages of test kits, swabs and chemical reagents”

4. E4 Why labs are clamoring for swabs and reagents PolitiFact · 21 April 2020

   “He says that there’s a “tremendous amount” of unused testing capacity in states available for governors to tap, and that swabs and reagents — the materials needed to conduct the tests — are “so easy to get.””

Vox reported on 2020-04-17 that the slowdown in new US tests was driven by shortages of nasal swabs, reagents, test kits and machines (E1). On 2020-04-20, CNN cited the American Hospital Association as saying testing still faced critical shortages of swabs, transport media and reagents (E2). The LA Times reported that a number of governors complained of shortages of test kits, swabs and chemical reagents (E3). The only counterclaim in the evidence is Trump's statement that these materials were easy to get (E4), and the other sources contradict it. Together E1–E3 show shortages of testing capacity, swabs and reagents in mid-April 2020, which meets the "true" criterion.