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![(From L) US President Donald Trump, US Vice President Mike Pence and Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro look on during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House on April 2, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) (From L) US President Donald Trump, US Vice President Mike Pence and Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro look on during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House on April 2, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)](https://images.dailykos.com/images/786827/story_image/GettyImages-1208987017.jpg?1585930091)
As pandemic-related closures rock the nation’s meat processing plants, Bloomberg is now reporting that Donald Trump plans to “order” beef, chicken, pork, and egg processing plants to remain open despite the risks to employees and surrounding communities.
Bloomberg cites an unnamed source to report Trump “plans to use the Defense Production Act to order the plants to stay open.”
This would be a … surprising move, to say the least. The plants, owned by meat producing giants like Smithfield and Tyson foods, have been shuttered due to mass outbreaks of infection among employees and multiple deaths. Over 300 workers in a now-shuttered Smithfield plant tested positive for COVID-19. Trump would essentially be ordering workers at those plants, by law, to return to the job despite the risk.