Trump accuses GM of overpromising on breathing machines

DETROIT (AP) — President Donald Trump attacked General Motors Friday, alleging that the company promised to build thousands more breathing machines than it can deliver for coronavirus patients and that it wants too much money for them.

“As usual with ‘this’ General Motors, things just never seem to work out,” Trump wrote on Twitter, adding that the company promised 40,000 ventilators quickly but now says it will build only 6,000 in late April. Trump also tweeted that Ford should start making ventilators fast.

The move escalated a feud involving the president, GM, several governors and medical experts over the severity of the crisis and just how many ventilators will be needed to handle it.

Experts say the U.S. is hundreds of thousands of breathing machines short of what it likely will need to treat a rapidly rising number of COVID-19 patients. New York, Michigan, Louisiana and the state of Washington have been singled out as virus hot spots in the U.S.

The series of tweets came just hours after Trump, during a Fox News interview Thursday night, said he had “a feeling” that the number of ventilators being requested to handle the virus was too high.

Trump threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act and wrote that GM should reopen its now-closed factory in Lordstown, Ohio, or some other facility to build ventilators. GM sold the Lordstown plant to a company that wants to make electric commercial vehicles.

GM issued a statement announcing its agreement to build ventilators with Ventec Life Systems, a small Seattle-area company. It also will help Ventec ramp up production. The automaker addressed Trump's price-gouging claim by saying it is offering resources to Ventec “at cost.”

GM's statement said the company is scheduled to start shipping...