Trump pivots and invokes Defense Production Act
Order compels GM to step up making needed supplies
WASHINGTON — After days of pleading from the nation’s governors, President Donald Trump took steps Friday to expand the federal government’s role in helping to produce critically needed supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
It was an abrupt aboutface by Trump, who had questioned governors’ needs for crucial medical equipment like masks and ventilators, and made clear that he believed it was up to the states — not him — to secure those supplies.
The invocation, he said, “should demonstrate clearly to all that we will not hesitate to use the full authority of the federal government to combat this crisis.”
“The governors have been very gracious, for the most part, I would say. There are a couple that aren’t appreciative of the incredible job. They have to do a better job themselves.
That’s part of the problem.”
But after days of saying such a move was not needed, Trump on Friday signed an order aimed at compelling General Motors to prioritize the production of ventilators under the Defense Production Act. Hours earlier, Trump had taken issue with the idea states would need an influx of the machines.
One month after predicting the U.S. was days from being “close to zero” coronavirus cases, Trump in recent days had increasingly tried to shift the blame to state and local leaders as the spread tops more than 100,000 cases nationwide.
He lashed out at governors, continued to diminish the risk posed by the virus and insisted that the federal government was only a “backup” as he looked to avoid political costs from a pandemic that has reshaped his presidency and tested his reelection plans.
In a Thursday night interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump declared that Washington Gov. Jay Inslee “should be doing more” and “shouldn’t be relying on the federal government.” He dismissed New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s requests for additional ventilators to keep patients alive, saying, “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000” of the devices, which force air into the lungs of those too sick to breathe. And he said he was still weighing Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s request for a disaster declaration, saying, “We’ve had a big problem with the young, a woman governor from, you know who I’m talking about, from Michigan.”
He added from the White House: “You know, we don’t like to see the complaints.”
Governors’ complaints about federal support have been mounting as state leaders grow more open to airing their frustrations, despite the perceived risks. They had faulted Trump’s refusal to use the DPA to force companies to manufacture critical supplies and his insistence that it should be up to states to purchase things like masks and testing agents on the open market. That has forced states to compete against one another and the federal government, driving up prices, even as federal officials have pledged their help if states fail.
Whitmer, in particular, has criticized the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic — including on national cable TV shows — saying the federal government should do more and that Michigan’s allotment of medical supplies from the national stockpile is meager.
“It’s very distressing,” the Democratic governor told radio station WWJ. “I observed early on, like a lot of governors on both sides of the aisle, that the federal preparation was concerning. That apparently struck a nerve.”
Cuomo has also been on the forefront, some days criticizing the administration’s failure to act and at other times commending federal assistance. But the New York Democrat has remained clear that his state, which is now the epicenter of the crisis, needs many more ventilators than it has at the ready.
“That’s what the data and the science said,” Cuomo said Friday as he defended his ask for additional ventilators and issued a new request for an additional 41,000 beds in temporary hospitals.
Trump has repeatedly referred to himself as a “wartime president” — and now Cuomo and others have called on the federal government to act like it’s a war.
Even as Trump doubted the need for a massive increase in ventilators, the
White House has been working behind the scenes to get more manufactured. Disagreements became public Friday when Trump lashed out at General Motors and its CEO on Twitter.
“As usual with ‘this’ General Motors, things just never seem to work out,” Trump wrote, adding that the company promised 40,000 ventilators quickly but now says it will build only 6,000 in late April and at a high price. He said they should reopen a now-closed factory in Lordstown, Ohio — even though that factory has been sold.
The White House later announced Trump had signed the order.