DETROIT — President Donald Trump on Thursday called Ford Motor Co. and its workers a “national treasure” for its effort to manufacture 50,000 ventilators by early July in response to the coronavirus crisis and recent efforts to reopen its assembly plants.
The president, choosing not to wear a mask in front of cameras, toured the Rawsonville plant where Ford assembles its Model A-E ventilator. He was joined by Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford, CEO Jim Hackett and Jim Baumbick, vice president of the company’s enterprise product line management.
Speaking to a crowd of workers, Trump congratulated the automaker for its role in providing medical equipment and thanked automakers for efforts to restart vehicle production earlier this week.
“I want to commend Ford, along with General Motors, General Electric, Fiat Chrysler and so many other companies, a lot of them in this area, for blazing a trail to safely restart America’s economic engines,” he said. “I want to…
