#alternate alternate Trump Resists Pressure to Use Wartime Law to Mobilize Industry in Virus Response -- Politics Today’s Paper Politics|Trump Resists Pressure to Use Wartime Law to Mobilize Industry in Virus Response https://nyti.ms/2U7IJZ9 -- Continue reading the main story Trump Resists Pressure to Use Wartime Law to Mobilize Industry in Virus Response -- * “When we need something, we’ll order something,” President Trump said of the Defense Production Act. “When we need something, we’ll order something,” President Trump said of the Defense Production Act. Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times Katie Rogers Maggie Haberman Ana Swanson -- * March 20, 2020 WASHINGTON — President Trump and his advisers have resisted calls from congressional Democrats and a growing number of governors to use a federal law that would mobilize industry and provide badly needed -- he would consider using that authority. Mr. Trump has given conflicting signals about the Defense Production Act since he first said on Wednesday that he was prepared to invoke the law, which was passed by Congress at the outset of the Korean War and -- And Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said that he was left with the impression after talking with Mr. Trump that he had decided to move to put the act into effect. He said “a commitment on the phone was a good start,” but that the president now needed to push the government “to move full steam ahead.” But Mr. Trump’s confusing statements played out in the middle of a growing health crisis that within days has abruptly and indefinitely altered the course of American life. -- Business leaders have said invoking the defense law is not necessary. During his appearance with the members of his coronavirus task force on Friday, Mr. Trump supported that idea and said that private companies, including General Motors, had volunteered to produce supplies without any prompting from the government. “We are literally being besieged in a beautiful way by companies that want to do the work and help our country,” Mr. Trump said. “We have not had a problem with that at all.” -- ambivalence about it. “When we need something, we’ll order something,” Mr. Trump said of the act. “As you know two days ago, I invoked the act. It is a big step. I am not sure if it is done before. When we need something, we’ll use -- In signing the executive order on Wednesday to put the act into effect, Mr. Trump said the purpose was to expedite distribution of “health and medical resources needed to respond to the spread of Covid-19, including personal protective equipment and ventilators,” and that Alex -- arise about how far it has already spread. During Friday’s briefing, Mr. Trump grew increasingly confrontational with reporters as they pressed him on the details of the Defense Production Act, and he snapped at Peter Alexander, a reporter for NBC News, who asked him what he would say to Americans who were scared. “I say that you’re a terrible reporter, that’s what I say,” Mr. Trump replied. “It is a bad signal that you are putting out to the American people,” the president continued. “You want to get back to reporting instead of sensationalism. Let’s see if it works. I happen to feel good about it. Who knows. I have been right a lot. Let’s see what happens.” As the coronavirus has spread, Mr. Trump has come under withering attack from Democrats for the speed at which he has mobilized the government to respond. -- “We’re talking about a president who is basically doing what Herbert Hoover did at the beginning of the Depression and minimizing the danger and refusing to use available federal action,” Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York said Friday in an interview with the radio station WNYC. “And people are going to die, and they shouldn’t, they don’t have to, if we -- sector for medical supplies. In a call held on Thursday with Mr. Trump, a group of governors stressed to him that they were struggling to address the staggering demand for equipment. -- smaller state or less populated.” Mr. Trump promised her that would “never” happen before Ms. Noem’s telephone line was disconnected. -- natural disasters. The act would give the Trump administration the authority to override companies’ existing contracts and to direct supplies to hot spots like New York City or Seattle. It could also help mobilize funds for -- workers need. But people familiar with the administration’s actions say it is still trying to figure out how industry supply chains operate, which companies could produce additional products and what kinds of subsidies -- As reported cases of the virus in the United States have soared, Mr. Trump, who is known to recruit input from a variety of outside advisers, has been getting conflicting advice. The proliferating number of private sector voices with direct access to the president and his -- In practice, the administration has been trying to use the provision to jawbone companies into taking voluntary action while holding over them the possibility that the federal government would intervene, according to administration officials familiar with the state of play.