U.S. President Donald Trump, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, left, and Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, right, participate in a briefing on the coronavirus pandemic at the White House on March 27, in Washington, DC. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

US President Donald Trump wielded his federal powers Friday and mandated that General Motors produce ventilators because he was irked by news reports that an agreement between the company and the administration had stalled, a person familiar with the discussions told CNN.

Early Friday, aides were hopeful that the talks could get back on track after a disagreement over how much it would cost and how long it would take. And GM announced it and Ventec Life Systems would move forward with production efforts regardless of an agreement with the administration.

But the President grew irritated by reports that the talks had been put on hold, even if only briefly, and ordered aides to require General Motors to produce the ventilators.

As reported by CNN, neither GM nor Ventec were given a heads up about the move.

Internally, aides have acknowledged that the move won't change the company's timeline because it will still have to retool factories to make the ventilators. And now the government will foot the bill, something that had become a sticking point in negotiations as aides weighed whether the large price tag was worth how long it would take the ventilators to ship out.

For weeks, the President ignored requests by some officials in his administration to invoke the act. He insisted private companies had been willing to act and did not need to be coerced into doing so.

But in a potential sign of the President's changing attitude, he announced Friday that his top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, is now in charge of coordinating the act.

Navarro was one of several who initially pushed Trump to sign the Defense Production Act.