One week ago, Donald Trump seemingly sent the message that he finally understood the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, when said he now views himself as a “wartime president.”
To bolster this new persona, at the same time he announced that he was invoking the Defense Production Act.
The 1950
law gives the government more control during emergencies to direct industrial production.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency describes the act as "the primary source of presidential authorities to expedite and expand the supply of resources from the US industrial base to support military, energy, space and homeland security programs."
"The authorities can be used across the federal government to shape the domestic industrial base so that, when called upon, it is capable of providing essential materials and goods needed for the national defense," the report says.
The effects of the Defense Production Act is an echo to the past, a more patriotic time, when American industry such as private auto companies redirected their manufacturing capabilities towards the war effort. In a similar fashion, we are now seeing private industry doing the same to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, these efforts by the private sector have so far been driven by their own purposeful decisions, not Trump — who declared, shortly after invoking the DPA, that he would only wait until “the worst case scenario.”
Which makes no sense. Since Trump decided to play wartime president, if we use that analogy, this waiting until the worst case scenario would have been akin to President Franklin Roosevelt to have waiting until Nazi Germany had occupied Britain and started sending ships to the American mainland, and then go, “OK, now start making tanks instead of cars.” You don’t wait until the worst case scenario, WHEN YOU ARE TRYING TO AVERT THE WORST CASE SCENARIO.
And consequently, it eventually started becoming apparent that Trump wasn’t using his DPA powers to help combat COVID-19 at all.
"No. We haven't yet," Gaynor replied when asked on CNN's "State of the Union" if the Trump administration has ordered any companies to make critical medical supplies needed on the front lines of the coronavirus fight.
The FEMA chief insisted that donations and voluntary offers of assistance from companies are presently sufficient. "It's happening without using that lever," he explained, adding, "If it comes to a point we have to pull the lever, we will."
Why? Why wouldn't Trump use these vast legal powers, that only he as President has, that would immediately help our frontline medical staff against the COVID-19 pandemic that threatens to kill thousands of Americans?
In the days since, Trump has managed to come up with some coherent excuses for not using the Defense Production Act, but they so far sound less than compelling.
But experts point to three major problems with this argument.
First, a private company is either going to sell to whoever placed their order first or to the highest bidder. It’s therefore possible that the places in America that most need masks, for example, may not get them in time because a mask-making company has other orders to fill first.
The second flaw in Trump’s argument has to do with materials. Yes, many companies already involved in manufacturing medical supplies are ramping up their efforts. But in doing so, they’re going to need additional materials and may be hampered in their efforts if they can’t get those materials.
Again, this is where the DPA comes in: The federal government can find other sources of those materials and then put in an order to have the company sell the materials to the federal government instead of using them to make their own products.
Finally, there may be a company that wants to help build something — say, respirators — but doesn’t have the machinery or capital to do so. If the federal government thinks that company could be useful, it might give a loan or offer equipment under DPA so production can begin right away. That accelerates that company’s ability to help right now.
The issue, then, isn’t that companies are sitting on their hands. Problems arise in making the product and then delivering it to where it’s most needed in a time of crisis. Only the federal government coordinating the response has the insight and resources to help with that.
It may not come as a surprise as some, but there is a possible other reason why Trump has resisted using the DPA: due to pressure from the private sector itself.
The New York Times resolves the mystery. Trump has refused to invoke the act because big business doesn’t want him to. “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the heads of major corporations have lobbied the administration against using the act,” the Times reports. “They say the move could prove counterproductive, imposing red tape on companies precisely when they need flexibility to deal with closed borders and shuttered factories.” Trump, Lawrence Kudlow, and Jared Kushner all reportedly found these arguments persuasive.
In any case, seemingly feeling the pressure on multiple fronts to finally use his Defense Production Act Powers, yesterday FEMA announced that Trump would finally invoke the DPA to produce coronavirus test kits.
Around 8 a.m. Tuesday, Trump tweeted, "The Defense Production Act is in full force, but haven't had to use it because no one has said NO! Millions of masks coming as back up to States."
Minutes later, FEMA administrator Pete Gaynor told CNN the administration will start wielding the powers in the
Defense Production Act for 60,000 tests kits and "use the allocation portion of the DPA" starting today.
"Just a little while ago my team came in and we're actually going to use the DPA for first time today," Gaynor said.
In addition, FEMA will "insert some language into these mask contracts we have of 500 million masks," Gaynor said. "DPA language will be in that today."
Gaynor's comments caught top White House officials off guard. One said they did not know what Gaynor was referencing and was still trying to figure it out in the hours after he was on television.
This seemed to be walked back about as immediately as it was announced.
Now we find out that FEMA somehow was able to secure thousands of test kits without Trump, once again, using the Defense Production Act.
So once again, we have Trump NOT utilizing his “wartime presidential” powers of the Defense Production Act. It is great that FEMA was able to secure so many test kits — but I’m pretty sure we likely need far more tests than even that. Not to mention ALL THE OTHER MEDICAL SUPPLY NECESSITIES THE COUNTRY HAS RIGHT NOW. There is still a great need for the powers granted through the Defense Production Act, to greatly replenish our medical supplies and keep our front lines workers safe. Yet this seems to be the extent to which Trump is willing to go.
This is yet another huge example of Trump’s gross incompetence in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. He cares more about saving the stock market than saving lives. What is needed in the time of this crisis is decisiveness, open communication, and strong leadership. Trump is displaying none of this, other than sending the country mixed signals, openly contradicting his own officials, and seemingly doing his utmost to simply claim credit of being a wartime president where exactly zero of that credit is actually deserved.
Right now, there are waves of dutiful Americans doing their best to combat the COVID-19 pandemic:
- the doctors and medical staff on the front lines, who face the most risk, and so far are doing it with dwindling supplies that they so desperately need
- the local and state government officials and medical staff coordinating on the ground, communicating the situation the best they can and doing their best to get supplies to the hospitals and doctors, and locking down their regions with shelter-in-place and other quarantine efforts due to a lack of direction from the federal level
- private companies and stepping up out of their own volition to utilize their resources in some way to help the battle
- the Representatives and Senators in the Capitol rushing to pass legislation, but doing their best to make sure that the most vulnerable Americans and really as many as possible get the economic relief they need
And WHAT. THE. HELL. IS. TRUMP. DOING?!?!
Trump is apparently already thinking about the days when we can start to return to normalcy and the worst of the COVID-19 threat has passed.
But when we do get to that point, it will be far more thanks to the extreme once-in-a-lifetime efforts of those people mentioned above; not due to any significant achievements of Donald Trump. Not at this rate.