Trump called ‘pirate’ for outbidding allies on face mask orders

DONALD Trump was last night accused of ‘modern-day piracy’ by swooping in on medical kit bound for Europe.

The US President’s team was said to have offered China ‘three or four times’ the price of what France agreed to secure shipments of face masks meant to go to Paris.

Valérie Pécresse, leader of the Ile- de-France region, said American officials moved in as the loaded planes were ready for take-off without seeing the goods first.

She said: ‘We lost an order to the Americans who outbid us on a shipment.’

US officials denied the claims, calling them ‘completely false’.

But a German official said the Americans blindsided them too, accusing Washington of ‘modern-day piracy’. Berlin’s state minister of the interior Andreas Geisel said 200,000 FFP2 masks bound for his country were confiscated at Bangkok airport in Thailand.

He blasted the US for resorting to ‘methods from the Wild West’ and urged it to ‘comply with international rules’.

Paris has ordered 1.5 million face masks from China amid fierce international competition for the products.

Some of the equipment was made there by the US firm 3M.

But Mr Trump yesterday invoked the Defense Production Act to stop it exporting supplies to anyone other than the US.

He promised the firm would be punished for selling the masks to foreign countries, tweeting: ‘We hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks. “P Act” all the way. Big surprise to many in government as to what they were doing – will have a big price to pay!’

Canada yesterday also took a swipe at the US, saying it confiscated medical supplies it ordered. Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland warned she would defend the national interest and ‘do whatever it takes’.

Meanwhile, French officials have deployed tens of thousands of extra police and set up road blocks to ensure people comply with the lockdown over the Easter holidays.