×

Trump, GM clash over ventilator issue

President Donald Trump speaks before he signs the coronavirus stimulus relief package in the Oval Office at the White House, Friday, March 27, 2020, in Washington. Listening are from left, Larry Kudlow, White House chief economic adviser, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarty of Calif. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump, hours after attacking General Motors on Twitter accusing the company of overpromising on the number of breathing machines it can build for COVID-19 patients, issued an order that seeks to force the automaker to produce the ventilators under the Defense Production Act.

Trump said negotiations with General Motors had been productive, “but 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.”

Trump said “GM was wasting time” and said his action will help ensure the quick production of ventilators that will save American lives.

Experts say the U.S. is hundreds of thousands of breathing machines short of what it likely will need to treat a rapidly rising number of COVID-19 patients. New York, Michigan, Louisiana and the state of Washington have been singled out as virus hot spots in the U.S.

Earlier Friday, Trump tweeted: “As usual with ‘this’ General Motors, things just never seem to work out,” adding the company promised 40,000 ventilators quickly but now says it will build only 6,000 in late April. Trump also tweeted that Ford should start making ventilators fast.

The move escalated a feud involving the president, GM, several governors and medical experts over the severity of the crisis and just how many ventilators will be needed to handle it.

The series of tweets came just hours after Trump, during a Fox News interview Thursday night, said he had “a feeling” that the number of ventilators being requested to handle the virus was too high.

Trump threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act and tweeted Friday morning GM should “immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant,” or some other facility to build ventilators.

Trump’s tweet was immediately met by responses from Democrats, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, both of whom reminded the president that GM sold the plant to Lordstown Motors Corp., which wants to build electric pickup trucks.

“General Motors doesn’t own that facility anymore. Pay attention. Please.,” Ryan, D-Howland, tweeted.

“General Motors sold Lordstown. If the President cared about its former workers, he would know that,” Brown tweeted. “Instead of throwing a tantrum on Twitter, why don’t you just invoke the DPA?”

Ryan also called on Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act later in a release from his office that reiterated a bill he co-sponsored earlier this week to fully utilize that act.

GM issued a statement announcing its agreement to build ventilators with Ventec Life Systems, a small Seattle-area company. It also will help Ventec ramp up production. The automaker addressed Trump’s price-gouging claim by saying it is offering resources to Ventec “at cost.”

GM’s statement said the company is scheduled to start shipping ventilators as soon as next month from an automotive electronics factory in Kokomo, Indiana.

“This effort is in addition to Ventec taking aggressive steps to ramp up production at their manufacturing facility,” the statement said.

The statement said Ventec and GM are working round the clock, and that depending on the government’s needs, the two companies are ready to manufacture more than 10,000 ventilators per month with the ability to increase that rate.

Meanwhile, Ford is working with GE Health Care to increase ventilator production. The automaker plans to manufacture a simplified ventilator design starting next month, building at a higher rate in May.

In the Fox interview, Trump questioned whether the number of ventilators requested by hospitals was exaggerated: “I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be,” Trump said.

“I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators,” he continued. “You know, you’re going to major hospitals sometimes, they’ll have two ventilators. And now, all of a sudden, they’re saying, ‘can we order 30,000 ventilators?'”

His remarks contradicted medical experts and apparently were aimed at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has been pleading for 30,000 more ventilators to handle an expected surge in critical virus patients during the next three weeks.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.85/week.

Subscribe Today