President Trump demanded two top automakers make ventilators to help patients during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a flurry of tweets on Friday morning, Trump called on General Motors Co. and Ford to “start making ventilators, now” as major cities throughout the country struggle to cope with the influx of patients infected by the coronavirus.
“General Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!!” Trump tweeted. “FORD, GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!! @GeneralMotors @Ford.”
[Related: Toyota factories to produce face shields and ventilators to combat coronavirus shortages]
General Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!! FORD, GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!! @GeneralMotors @Ford
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020
GM closed the plant in Lordstown, Ohio, along with several other manufacturing factories in March 2019 as it shifted focus to a new line of electric and driverless cars.
“As usual with ‘this’ General Motors, things just never seem to work out,” Trump said. “They said they were going to give us 40,000 much-needed Ventilators, ‘very quickly’. Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar. Always a mess with Mary B. Invoke ‘P.’”
As usual with “this” General Motors, things just never seem to work out. They said they were going to give us 40,000 much needed Ventilators, “very quickly”. Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar. Always a mess with Mary B. Invoke “P”.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020
He later clarified that “P” meant the Defense Production Act, a 1950s law that allows the government to force private businesses to produce emergency supplies necessary for national security.
Another car company, Toyota, announced on Friday that its facilities in North America will be used to make face shields and ventilators needed to combat coronavirus-related shortages.
Healthcare providers have stressed the importance of ventilators, which are needed to stabilize oxygen levels in patients who are struggling with the effects of the disease.
“The patient can be sustained for short periods of time using manual forms of ventilation such as using a bag and mask system with oxygen, but usually being attached to a ventilator needs to happen within 30 minutes if critical,” said Sarath Ranganathan, the director of respiratory and sleep medicine at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital.
Trump and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have traded barbs over a shortage of ventilators in the state, which has been the hardest-hit region of the United States. In 2015, Cuomo decided against the recommendation of purchasing 16,000 ventilators in case of a pandemic.
“Thousand of Federal Government (delivered) Ventilators found in New York storage. N.Y. must distribute NOW!” Trump said in a tweet Friday morning.
Thousand of Federal Government (delivered) Ventilators found in New York storage. N.Y. must distribute NOW!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020
