Friend,

Donald Trump wants to call himself a “wartime president,” but he’s not acting like one.

The president has the power to speed up the production of lifesaving medical equipment with the stroke of a pen. But for months, Trump wasted time instead, downplaying the severity of the virus and stoking xenophobia.

That’s why I was cautiously optimistic when in mid-March Trump finally announced he was invoking the Defense Production Act (DPA), giving him the authority to mobilize factories to produce the materials necessary to address this pandemic. I thought maybe — just maybe — he had started to take this situation a little more seriously.

But then not even a day later, Trump flip-flopped and said that states were on their own when it came to purchasing medical supplies.

In the weeks since, he’s only invoked the Defense Production Act for GM and no other manufacturers — and only after GM volunteered to produce ventilators without a mandate. According to USA TODAY, as of last week Trump had still refused to actually order a single ventilator to be manufactured under the DPA.

The bottom line is, the number of Americans in need of medical care will continue to grow even as hospitals’ capacity to treat them continues to diminish. There simply aren't enough resources to go around — but it’s within Trump’s power as president to fix that and get our healthcare workers the supplies they need. He needs to do it.

All my best,

Tammy Duckworth