What’s Going On With Donald Trump and 3M?

David Becker/ZUMA

President Trump mysteriously invoked the Defense Procurement Act against 3M on Thursday:

We hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks. “P Act” all the way. Big surprise to many in government as to what they were doing – will have a big price to pay!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2020

The White House didn’t explain this, and it’s a little unnerving to see Trump using the DPA in such a gleefully punitive way. It’s supposed to be a technocratic tool for coordinating production, not a way for a president to score political points on Twitter.

In any case, this presumably has something to do with how and where 3M is shipping N95 respirator masks. But how much control does 3M have over this?

3M is a global company that has outsourced N-95 mask production to other countries where the labor is much cheaper. Only a third of the masks are made here in the United States. That means other countries are keeping the masks for themselves and not shipping them back here.

— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) April 3, 2020

It doesn’t matter then whether Trump invokes the Defense Production Act since domestic production of masks is limited and other countries are blocking exports to the United States. Trump needs to talk to these other countries and make a deal to get them to send these masks to us.

— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) April 3, 2020

I can’t independently vouch for this, but it sounds pretty plausible. If other countries have put export controls on N95 masks, there’s probably not much 3M can do to direct them to the US.

Perhaps we’ll learn more on Friday if either the White House or 3M comment on this. And who knows? Maybe it will turn out that the issue with 3M is something entirely different.

POSTSCRIPT: Either way, I’m not thrilled that Trump has finally figured out that he can use the DPA selectively as a way of burnishing his political fortunes. Matches to children, my friends, matches to children.