(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said he invoked a U.S. law that allows the government to order industrial production for “leverage” with companies making supplies to combat the coronavirus outbreak but that he hasn’t had to exercise the authority.
“It’s called leverage,” Trump said of the Defense Production Act at a White House news conference. “Companies are doing as we asked, and companies are even better than that -- they’re coming through and they’re calling us.”
“We didn’t have to exercise or utilize the DPA in any way,” he said. “The fact that we have it helps, but for the most part we won’t have to.”
