The spin coming from Donald Trump is enough to make anyone dizzy. For weeks, Trump has said he didn’t need to authorize the Defense Production Act, legislation that forces companies to produce for the government, because it wasn’t needed for medical equipment like ventilators.
Then suddenly on Friday, a 180-degree turn. The Daily Beast writes:
“In a public announcement the White House said that President Trump had written a memo to the Department of Health and Human Services directing secretary Alex Azar to “use any and all authority available under the Defense Production Act to require General Motors to accept, perform, and prioritize Federal contracts for ventilators.”
The total confusion from the White House, not to mention the lack of leadership has cost this country critical weeks. According to the Daily Beast:
“Trump’s mixed messaging raises additional questions about why the process for addressing dire hospital needs has been so disjointed more than 60 days after senior Trump administration officials were first warned that the new coronavirus would spread across the United States.“
It was less than 24 hours ago that Trump was phoning in to Fox News to tell Sean Hannity that New York didn’t need the 30,000 ventilators they requested. Now, suddenly, a different tact. Maybe other countries can use them.
Now the DPA will be overseen by Peter Navarro, the White House aide who had been downplaying the need for it.
And now Trump is accusing General Motors with wasting time in manufacturing the ventilators.
