WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump complimented General Motors for its work on hospital ventilators, two days after threatening to use federal law to force the company to produce the devices faster and cheaper.
“General Motors is doing a fantastic job,” Trump said at a White House news conference on Sunday. “I don’t think we have to worry about General Motors now.”
GM has been working with medical device maker Ventech Medical Inc. to retool some of its factories to make ventilators, which are in high demand due to the coronavirus outbreak — not a simple task given the need to source dozens of parts and set up production lines.
But Trump and his aides had complained Friday that the automaker was moving too slowly and asking too high a price for the machines.
He issued a memo Friday invoking the Defense Production Act to force GM to make ventilators, but suggested hours later at a news conference he might withdraw the order.
The memo followed a tweet Friday morning assailing GM and its chief executive officer, Mary Barra.
