One of the biggest charades of Donald Trump’s first run for office was his portrayal of himself as a champion of the working class and an antagonist of the global elite. It was an act no one should have believed at the time and one that even fewer people should have believed after he proceeded to pass a package of tax cuts that disproportionately benefited corporations and billionaires, effectively giving a very large middle finger to American workers. Not surprisingly, Trump is still trying to paint himself as a champion of the average American. Hence his speech in Michigan on Wednesday addressed at the striking United Auto Workers union, which would have probably had a stronger impact had he not delivered it at…a nonunion plant.
Yes, just one day after a judge ruled that Mr. Man of the People had spent years committing massive amounts of self-enriching business fraud at his own company, Trump flew to Macomb County to inject himself into the strike—and pretty much came off like a scab. While the ex-president claimed to “want a future that protects American labor, not foreign labor,” he also declared: “I don’t care what you get in the next two weeks, or three weeks, or five weeks…. I don’t think you’re picketing for the right thing.”
What UAW members are striking for is a 40% pay increase—which Trump did not back on Wednesday, in contrast to Joe Biden, who on Tuesday supported the demand, saying the autoworkers deserve a “lot more” than they are getting. Meanwhile, given that Trump’s remarks were delivered at a nonunion plant, it was not at all surprising to learn, per The New York Times, that at least some of Trump’s audience was made up of people who weren’t union employees, despite signs that suggested otherwise:
Before the former president took the stage, a few hundred people were seated on the floor of the factory, and at least one man in a red UAW T-shirt said he was a union member and voiced support for the strike. Two people holding “Union Members for Trump” signs said they were not union members. The Trump campaign made no effort to recruit attendees through UAW locals, according to the union.
Appearing on CNN, UAW president Shawn Fain, whose endorsement Trump asked for throughout his speech, said: “I find a pathetic irony that the former president is going to hold a rally for union members at a nonunion business.” Hours before Trump’s remarks, Mike Booth, UAW vice president for General Motors, put things in even harsher terms, telling the Detroit Free Press in an email: “Let me be blunt. Donald Trump is coming off as a pompous (expletive). Coming to Michigan to speak at a nonunion employer and pretending it has anything to do with our fight at the Big Three is just more verbal diarrhea from the former president.”
Striking autoworkers, of course, have more than a few reasons to be distrustful of Trump, in addition to the fact that he literally told them, “I don’t think you’re picketing for the right thing.” As president, he did not express support for union members during the UAW’s strike against General Motors in 2019; in 2015, as a candidate, he said auto jobs should be moved to states that paid lower wages; and during the 2008 recession, according to Fain, he “blamed UAW members. He blamed our contracts for everything that was wrong with these companies.”
In the interview with CNN, Fain confirmed he would not meet with Trump during the ex-president’s visit to Michigan, saying: “I see no point in meeting with him because I don’t think the man has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for. He serves a billionaire class, and that’s what’s wrong with this country.” In a statement, Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz called Trump’s speech “a pathetic, recycled attempt to feign support for working Americans,” adding, “Americans have seen him try this before, and they aren’t buying it. They know who Donald Trump really is: a billionaire charlatan running on empty words, broken promises, and lost jobs.”
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