President Donald Trump on Friday told the two largest US automakers to immediately start making ventilators to protect Americans against the coronavirus (COVID-19) or he would invoke executive wartime powers
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th March, 2020) President Donald Trump on Friday told the two largest US automakers to immediately start making ventilators to protect Americans against the coronavirus (COVID-19) or he would invoke executive wartime powers.
"General Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW," Trump said via Twitter. "FORD, GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST."
In an earlier tweet, Trump threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA), which gives the president the authority to mobilize industry in the face of a national emergency or security threat.
General Motors, the president added, said they were going to quickly provide 40,000 ventilators but are now saying they can only manufacture 6,000 by late April and "they want top Dollar."
The wartime DPA allows the government to force companies to make goods needed for national defense. Trump has so far chosen not to invoke the measure, claiming that many other American companies have, or are willing to, make the machines needed to keep critically ill coronavirus patients alive long enough to recover from the disease.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration balked at a GM plan to manufacture 80,000 ventilators when the automaker announced a price of more than $1 billion, claiming a need to explore offers from other manufacturers.
On Thursday, the United States surpassed China as world leader in confirmed coronavirus cases. As of Friday afternoon, the United States had 86,012 cases - 4,115 more than China, according to Johns Hopkins University.
