Coronavirus: Trump demands GM, Ford build ventilators; could order action

President Donald Trump urged General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co on Friday to quickly build badly needed ventilators for coronavirus (COVID-19) patients and suggested he could invoke the Defense Production Act.

GM (GM.N) and Ford (F.N) announced they are working with companies to help boost ventilator production in recent days. Many Democrats including New York Governor Andrew Cuomo have urged Trump to invoke the law and require industrial companies to build medical equipment.

Trump also attacked GM for closing an Ohio factory last year. GM sold the Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant last year to an electric truck start-up.

“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!!!!!!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

“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.” (Source: Reuters)