After criticism, Trump says government will buy more ventilators.
WASHINGTON — Faced with a torrent of criticism from cities and states that have been pleading for help to deal with the most critically ill coronavirus victims, President Donald Trump announced Friday that the federal government would buy thousands of ventilators from a variety of makers, though it appeared doubtful they could be produced in time to help hospitals that are now overwhelmed.
His announcement came shortly after authorizing the government to “use any and all authority available under the Defense Production Act,” a Korean War-era authority allowing the federal government to commandeer General Motors’ factories and supply chains to produce ventilators.
It was the latest example of Trump’s mixed messages about how to ramp up production to meet a national crisis. Just 24 hours before, he had dismissed the complaints of mayors and governors who said they were getting little of the equipment they needed for an expected onslaught of serious cases. And this week he praised companies that — General Motors included — were rallying to help provide necessary equipment.
But he turned on GM on Friday, accusing it of “wasting time” and seeking to “rip off ” the government. “Our fight against the virus is too urgent to allow the give-and-take of the contracting process to continue to run its normal course,” the president said.
But it was unclear whether Trump’s use of the law would make much difference. He was essentially ordering the company to do something it had already arranged to do: GM announced earlier Friday that it was moving forward with an emergency joint venture with a small manufacturer, Ventec Life Systems, even in the absence of a contract from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Company executives seemed stunned by the president’s effort to command them to carry through with an effort they had initiated.
In a late-afternoon news conference, Trump said, “Now it turns out we will have to be producing large numbers.” He said over the next 100 days, “we will either make or get, in some form, over 100,000 additional units,” more than three times the nation’s annual production. Later, he insisted, “We’re going to have plenty.”
Most of those will have to come from finding existing units, industry executives say, because production lines are already stretched to the limit.
Trump appointed Peter Navarro, the China hawk among his trade advisers, to coordinate use of the Defense Production Act, and Navarro immediately made it clear that the White House planned to make an example of GM.
Trump’s announcement at his coronavirus task force’s daily briefing came on a day of intensive criticism of the administration’s slow response and lack of leadership in a pandemic that has now resulted in over 1,500 deaths in the United States. More than 100,000 people here have now been infected with the coronavirus, according to a New York Times database. The United States is the only country so far to hit that milestone.
Much of the criticism has focused on the absence of sufficient stockpiles of basic materials like masks and ventilators and especially on the lack of urgency in organizing increased production and distribution.
Officials in more than 200 U.S. cities, large and small, report a dire need for face masks, ventilators and other emergency equipment to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, according to a survey released Friday.
“It is abundantly clear that the shortage of essential items such as face masks, test kits, personal protective equipment, ventilators, and other items needed by health and safety personnel has reached crisis proportions in cities across the country,” Tom Cochran, chief executive of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said in a letter accompanying the survey’s findings.
Trump responded late Friday afternoon that “we have done a hell of a job” and wanted mayors and governors to “be appreciative.” He accused his critics of seeking political advantage.