Trump Resists Pressure to Force Companies to Make Coronavirus Supplies

By Katie Rogers, Maggie Haberman and Ana Swanson, The New York Times

21 March 20

The president insisted he has used the Defense Production Act, but said at a briefing that “we are literally being besieged” by companies “that want to do the work and help our country.”

resident Trump and his advisers have resisted calls from congressional Democrats and a growing number of governors to use a federal law that would mobilize industry and provide badly needed resources against the coronavirus spread, days after the president said he would consider using that authority.

Mr. Trump has given conflicting signals about the Defense Production Act since he first said on Wednesday that he was prepared to invoke the law, which was passed by Congress at the outset of the Korean War and grants presidents extraordinary powers to force American industries to ensure the availability of critical equipment.

The next day, he suggested that obtaining medical equipment should be up to individual governors because “we’re not a shipping clerk.” But on Friday, he reversed himself, asserting that he had used the law to spur the production of “millions of masks,” without offering evidence or specifics about who was manufacturing them or when they would reach health workers.

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