DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT

President acts swiftly after Tucker Carlson exposes company’s wrongdoing

4/3/2020

On 2 April, the US President slammed the 3M Company after invoking the Defense Production Act to require the company to produce face masks.

According to the Act, the President is allowed to demand national companies produce goods that are deemed necessary to ‘promote the national defence’.

“We hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks. ‘P Act’ all the way.’ Big surprise to many in government as to what they were doing – will have a big price to pay!” Trump said on Twitter.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump said at a daily briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the country that he hopes that the company will do their job.

“Hopefully they’ll be able to do what they are supposed to do,” Trump said.

The President added that the US government “anticipates issuing more orders under the Defence Production Act in the very near future”.

In a White House memorandum regarding the order, the president requires the company to deliver the appropriate number of N-95 respirators.

“The Secretary, through the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Administrator), shall use any and all authority available under the Act to acquire, from any appropriate subsidiary or affiliate of 3M Company, the number of N-95 respirators that the Administrator determines to be appropriate,” the memo reads.

Earlier in the day, Donald Trump invoked the Defence Production Act to order six US companies, namely General Electric, Hill-Rom, Medtronic, ResMed, Royal Philips, and Vyaire Medical, to repurpose their factories for building ventilators, another White House memo stated.

As of 2 April, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States has surpassed 213,144, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 4,500 people have died from the pandemic. The John Hopkins University data shows that over 244,000 people in the country have been infected with the disease, with the death toll exceeding 5,800.

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday at the White House he would invoke the Defense Production Act.

The act allows the president to expand the supply of resources from American industry to support the fight against the Chinese coronavirus, according to FEMA.

“Just in case we need it … it can do a lot of good things if we need it,” Trump said. Invoking the Defense Production Act would give the administration the authority to speed up the production of needed resources, such as medical masks and hospital ventilators.

Trump made the announcement to Americans at the White House press briefing room on Wednesday afternoon.

The president also said FEMA would be activated on a level one disaster to offer federal support for the coronavirus response.

“FEMA now is fully engaged at the highest levels,” Trump said. “Today, FEMA is activated in every region. We are at level one, level one being the highest level.”

The president praised FEMA for handling recent hurricane response during his administration and promised that they would help significantly.

“This is a very different kind of work for FEMA, but they will come through as they always do,” Trump said.

He recalled the heroism and sacrifices expressed by Americans in World War II and urged people to meet the moment.

“We must sacrifice together, because we are all in this together, and we’ll come through together,” Trump said. “It’s the invisible enemy that’s always the toughest enemy, the invisible enemy, but we’re going to defeat the invisible enemy.”