The United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain has recently publicly endorsed U.S. President Joe Biden in what appears to be a critical step in his reelection bid since he is trying to win the support from the working-class Americans. The president behind the 400,000-member union explained his decision citing Biden’s commitment to help the American workers especially noting Biden’s support during the UAW’s strike last fall which is evidence of Biden’s priorities.
Trump angry on United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain for endorsing Biden
Understandably, this decision made Trump angry who is still fighting Nikki Haley for the Republican nomination, a race in which he enjoys huge support from prominent political figures and GOP voters. But now Trump risks the support from American workers as he goes all-in in the open confrontation with United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain.
In a Fox News interview set to air Sunday, Trump dismissed the United Auto Workers as a “hopeless case.”
“They’ve led their industry right into the poor house, and now they’ve finished it off because, if you — if Biden gets elected, you won’t have an autoworker working in the United States. Everything’s going over to China and other countries outside,” he said as reported by USA Today.
Just a few days ago, Trump criticized Fain, calling him a “dope” on Truth Social. This was after Fain appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” where he said Biden supports American workers, unlike Trump, who he believes cares more about rich people.
This argument is happening while Biden and Trump are both trying to get support from Michigan, an important state because it has a lot of car factory workers. Trump won in the state in 2016 but lost it to Biden in 2020.
Trump tried to get endorsement from the Teamsters Union
Trump is now trying to connect with the Teamsters Union, which has 1.3 million members in the U.S. He had a meeting in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday with the union’s top leaders, including its president Sean O’Brien and general secretary-treasurer Fred Zuckerman, among others.
Although the initial meeting doesn’t mean automatic endorsement for Trump as O’Brien commented that there is a “long way to go before” before the union makes the final decision for endorsement, such a decision could be more than beneficial for Trump in effort to acquire the support from American workers.
Read also: National security and espionage concerns: Lawmakers harsh on Ford for cooperation with Chinese firms
Trump-Teamsters Union meeting was yet another opportunity for Auto Workers President Shawn Fain to attack Trump publicly. He said that he “can’t see any way in hell a union would endorse” Trump for president on CNN’s “The Source” with Kaitlan Collins Thursday.
“Look, they chose to entertain visiting with candidates, and that’s a path they chose. I mean, I saw no point in it because I look at the track record of Donald Trump. I mean, his two favorite words are, ‘You’re fired,’” O’Brien said.