DETROIT — President Donald Trump is coming to Michigan on Thursday to tour a Ford Motor Co. plant near Detroit where the automaker and GE Healthcare are assembling ventilators for the coronavirus pandemic response.
A White House official said Sunday that the president will visit Ford’s Rawsonville components plant and speak about the collaboration between the automaker and General Electric Co.’s health care division.
The event will mark Trump’s first trip to Michigan during the coronavirus pandemic. Trump was last in the state on Jan. 30 for a speech at Dana Inc.’s Van Dyke Avenue auto parts plant in Warren to mark the passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement trade deal his administration spent three years working to forge to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994.
Ford confirmed Trump’s visit to the Rawsonville plant in a statement Sunday night.
“The White House asked to visit Ford’s Rawsonville plant in Ypsilanti, Mich., as part of the president’s tour to thank businesses producing PPE and important medical equipment,” the company said in a statement. “We’re proud to assemble more vehicles in the U.S. than any other automaker and welcome Thursday’s visit as part of Ford’s longstanding history of hosting sitting presidents and senior government leaders.”
Ford and GE Healthcare began production April 20 of ventilators with a goal of producing 50,000 of the life-sustaining machines by mid-July. The Model A-E ventilators were designed by Airon Corp. and licensed by GE.
Trump’s trip to Michigan comes as the state remains under a stay-at-home order for a virus that has infected more than 51,000 residents and taken the lives of nearly 4,900 individuals since mid-March.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the president have clashed at times throughout the pandemic as the Democratic governor has been critical of the federal response to the national public health crisis.
Michigan is one of four states that have some of the most restrictions remaining in place meant to mitigate spread of the coronavirus, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Last week, Whitmer loosened restrictions on manufacturing, allowing auto suppliers to resume operations.
Under the governor’s latest order, Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles can resume production Monday inside Michigan assembly plants at 25 percent capacity with certain workplace restrictions and social distancing.
In March, Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to compel GM to build ventilators in partnership with Ventec.
In April, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded the Detroit-based automaker a $489.4 million contract to build 30,000 ventilators by August.
