Trump invokes emergency authority; Big 3 automakers closing factories
MINNEAPOLIS >> President Donald Trump moved to invoke a federal law Wednesday that allows the government to marshal industry to fight the coronavirus, as the economic fallout from the crisis mounted with word that Detroit’s Big Three automakers are shutting down their North American factories to protect workers.
On a day of head-spinning developments:
• Stocks tumbled again on Wall Street, falling so fast they triggered another automatic trading halt.
• More borders slammed shut across Europe and North America, with the U.S. and Canada agreeing to close their shared boundary to all but essential travel, and Trump saying he will do the same with Mexico and also bar entry to asylum-seekers.
• And the Trump administration pressed Congress to swiftly pass a potentially $1 trillion rescue package to prop up the economy and speed relief checks to Americans in a matter of weeks.
Calling himself a “wartime president,” Trump said he would sign the Defense Production Act “in case we need it” to deal with an expected surge in cases of the virus. The law, which dates to 1950 during the Korean War, gives the president extraordinary authority to compel industries to expand production and turn out vital materials.
Hospitals and public health officials fearing an onslaught of infections have pleaded for more face masks, goggles, gowns and other protective gear, as well as equipment such as ventilators.
“It’s a war,” Trump said, likening the anti-coronavirus efforts to measures taken during World War
II and warning of national sacrifices.
The avalanche of news came as scientists announced the virus has infected more than 200,000 people worldwide and killed over 8,000, while the United Nations warned that the global fallout could cost nearly 25 million job losses around the world.
Around the globe, officials took increasingly drastic measures to fight the epidemic and the threat of a recession, in some cases using emergency powers.
California’s governor warned that martial law could be imposed. The mayor of New York said the city’s 8.6 million residents should be prepared for a lockdown. Czech authorities used emergency powers to raid a warehouse and seize hundreds of thousands of face masks. Hong Kong widened the use of electronic wristbands that monitor people under selfquarantine.
With a growing number of Americans thrown out of work by the near-shutdown of much of the U.S. economy, Trump also said the Housing and Urban Development Department will suspend foreclosures and evictions from public housing through April.
The Trump administration’s plan for issuing relief checks to Americans calls for the payment of $500 billion in two installments over the next two months. The amounts have yet to be decided but would be based on income and family size.
Two people briefed on the matter said that Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler agreed to close all of their factories in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because the closings had not been announced. The move would idle about 150,000 workers, who are likely to receive supplemental pay in addition to unemployment benefits.
The U.S. reported more than 6,500 coronavirus cases and at least 119 deaths, almost half of them in Washington state, where dozens of residents from a suburban Seattle nursing home have died.
Some bright
spots emerged: Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the virus was first detected in late December and which has been under lockdown for weeks, reported just one new case for a second straight day Wednesday. The situation had improved enough that China even sent medical supplies to hard-hit France, returning a favor done by the French weeks ago.
But in a grim illustration of the epidemic’s shifting center of gravity, the death toll in Italy moved closer to overtaking China’s. Italy had more than 2,900 dead after a record one-day total of 475 deaths; China’s toll was just over 3,200. Iran has also been hit especially hard, with more than 17,000 cases and 1,100 deaths.
In releasing the new global infection figures, Johns Hopkins University said more than 82,000 people have recovered from the virus, which causes only mild or moderate symptoms such as fever and cough in most cases, with severe illness more likely in the elderly and those with existing health problems.