Trump blames General Motors for botched ventilator manufacturing deal: 'They want top dollar!'

President Donald Trump on Friday blamed General Motors after his administration scuttled a deal with the company to produce desperately needed ventilators to help people afflicted with COVID-19.

"As usual with 'this' General Motors, things just never seem to work out," the president wrote. "They said they were going to give us 40,000 much needed Ventilators, 'very quickly'. Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar. Always a mess."

The New York Times reported on Thursday night that the White House canceled a planned announcement about GM producing ventilators due to cost concerns -- despite the fact that the United States Senate just passed a massive COVID-19 economic relief package that totaled $2 trillion.

"The decision to cancel the announcement, government officials say, came after the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it needed more time to assess whether the estimated cost was prohibitive," the paper wrote. "That price tag was more than $1 billion, with several hundred million dollars to be paid upfront to General Motors to retool a car parts plant in Kokomo, Indiana."

Trump has also been downplaying the need for ventilators and told Fox News' Sean Hannity that he didn't really believe that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo really needed to have 30,000 additional ventilators as he had been requesting.