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Trump blasts GM and Ford, telling them to 'START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!!'

Posted at 11:40 AM, Mar 27, 2020
and last updated 2020-03-27 13:16:35-04

(WXYZ) — President Donald Trump is slamming General Motors, saying that the company must begin making ventilators now, and adding the Ford must also start working on ventilators quickly.

In a series of three tweets, Trump said things with GM never work out.

"They said they were going to give us 4,000 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'." Trump tweeted.

"P," he later tweeted, means the Defense Production Act. The act allows the president to rely on private companies for national needs during a crisis — to boost supplies and resources.

He also told GM to open the Lordstown, Ohio plan or another plant to "START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!! FORD, GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!!"

Ford later responded in a tweet of their own.

Earlier this week, both Ford and GM said they were in talks with the White House to make medical equipment.

Ford later announced it is teaming up with 3M, GE Healthcare and the UAW to quickly expand production of urgently needed medical equipment and supplies for healthcare workers, first responders and patients fighting the novel coronavirus.

Ford plans to assemble more than 100,000 face shields per week and use its in-house 3D printing capability to produce disposable respirators for healthcare workers.

General Motors is teaming up with Ventec Life Systems. Ventec says in a statement, “By tapping their expertise, GM is enabling us to get more ventilators to more hospitals much faster. This partnership will help save lives.”

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