
President Trump suggested Tuesday that his recent authorization of the Defense Production Act serves as enough “leverage” to compel companies to produce medical supplies without invoking the act to force them to start up production.
“Private companies are heeding our call to produce medical equipment and supplies because they know that we will not hesitate to invoke the DPA in order to get them to do what they have to do,” Trump said during a White House press briefing. “It’s called leverage. … The threat of it being there is great leverage. Companies are doing as we ask, even better than that.”
Trump continued: “We didn’t have to exercise or utilize the DPA in any way. The fact that we have it helps but we didn’t have to and for the most part we won’t have to.”
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."