In the last 10 days, President Trump has repeatedly invoked “P”—that’s his name for the Defense Production Act; everyone else calls it “DPA”—for critical supplies in the fight against COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.
First Trump issued a DPA order to General Motors to produce ventilators and appeared to threaten to do the same to Ford. Then, he made a similar order to GE Healthcare, Medtronic, ResMed, Phillips and two other firms that actually manufacture ventilators. Finally he “hit” 3M with “‘P Act’ all the way” for protective masks.
Trump isn’t alone in wanting to flex the powers of the DPA in the coronavirus crisis. Several other politicians and talking heads have called for the act to be used not just for ventilators and masks, but also for gloves, medical gowns and testing swabs.
One member of the Trump administration, Peter Navarro, is giddy the president is doing this. Navarro ordinarily helps run the administration’s protectionist trade policies, but he’s now also overseeing “its wartime powers forcing private businesses into the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.” He told the Wall Street Journal:
“Over the last several days, we ran into roadblocks with GM,” Mr. Navarro added. “We cannot afford to lose a single day, particularly over the next 30 to 60 days. So President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act as a way of enhancing and accelerating this mobilization. I salute him for doing so. It’s going to make my job so much easier.”
It’s encouraging that, after largely dismissing the virus for two months, the Trump administration is finally willing to get involved. But there’s no reason to think that invoking the DPA—er, “P”—will produce any more ventilators, masks, gloves, gowns, swabs, etc. any faster than would have been produced otherwise.
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