Daily Kos: Trump speech at nonunion auto parts company won’t erase his anti-union track record
By LAURA CLAWSON
It's unclear how many auto workers attended Trump's speech.
A person in the crowd with a "union members for Trump" sign acknowledged she wasn't a union member.
A person with an "auto workers for Trump" sign said he wasn't an auto worker. https://t.co/yWziQmqUSG
— Craig Mauger (@CraigDMauger) September 28, 2023
Last week, Donald Trump announced a plan to compete with the second Republican presidential primary debate by speaking to union members in Michigan as the United Auto Workers wage a strike against Detroit’s “Big Three” auto manufacturers. The plan got a lot of attention, and it continued to be framed in the media as Trump reaching out to union workers, even after it was known that the speech would be held at a nonunion auto parts manufacturer. It was a win for Trump, though, who got several news cycles of coverage suggesting his record on labor issues was far better than it is.
By the time Trump arrived, though, President Joe Biden had already spoken to striking workers on the picket line, a first for a sitting president. When asked if he would meet with Trump, UAW President Shawn Fain told CNN, “I see no point in meeting with him, because I don't think the man has any bit of care for what our workers care for, for what the working class stands for. He serves the billionaire class and that's what's wrong with this country.”