by Kara Machowski
updated at 4:23pm, please see bottom paragraph
Thursday the president visited Ford's production plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan to demonstrate Ford’s patriotism in producing ventilators for the coronavirus pandemic. The president and Ford Motors have had bad blood dating back to last August when the company was slammed for not backing his administration’s plan to roll back Obama-era fuel efficiency rules, instead reaching a voluntary agreement with California’s fuel and efficiency rules, defying Trump’s efforts to strip the state of the right to battle against climate change by setting its own standards.
The president also butted heads with both Ford and GM in March, criticizing the companies for not opening doors up sooner to produce ventilators as pressure mounted from states, mainly New York, in anticipation of coronavirus cases. Trump later criticized the states for over projecting the number of ventilators that they needed. On March 26th the president invoked the Defense Protection Act, ordering GM to produce ventilators and ordered Pete Navarro to oversee the production of ventilators.
Thursday the president stood on the White House lawn as he was leaving to visit Ford’s plant in Michigan and when he was asked if he would wear a mask he answered; "Well I don't know, we're going to look at it. A lot of people have asked me that question. I want to get our country back to normal. I want to normalize. One of the other things I want to do is get the churches open”. Prior to that the president of Ford enforced the fact that the president would indeed need to wear a mask if he were to visit the company’s production floor.
Ford has required each worker to wear PPE while working and were cautious to reopen so quickly in response to the country’s need for ventilators because they wanted to ensure that workers would be protected and that their lives and family’s lives would not be put at risk.
There may be additional reasons to visit Michigan other than highlighting Ford’s plant and production, be also tweeted on Wednesday that Michigan ‘illegally’ sent out absentee ballots to 7.7 million people ahead of the primaries and the general election and threatened to hold up funding for the state, criticizing them of going down a path of voter fraud.
The president has also clashed with Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whittmer over numerous issues during the pandemic, from not opening the state in his timeline to yesterday's accusation of enforcing voter fraud.
Upon arriving in Michigan the president exited Air Force One, not wearing any PPE and grasping the rail of the stairwell. He sat down at a listening session at the plant with African American leaders, as the colored nation has suffered from the coronavirus outbreak, all who were not wearing a mask, while appearing to be distanced from one another by more than six feet.
During the discussion he made an announcement that he would not be wearing a mask on camera while touring Ford's processing plant and will be withholding funding from Michigan because he fears voter fraud from mail-in, absentee ballots. He ended the briefing by inviting journalists to tour the processing plant with him.
Comments