\n<\/p>\n
One of the biggest charades of Donald Trump<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s 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\u00a0corporations<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0billionaires<\/a>, effectively giving\u00a0a very large middle finger to American workers<\/a>. 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\u2026a nonunion plant.<\/p>\n Yes, just one day after a judge ruled<\/a> 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\u2014and pretty much came off like a scab. While the ex-president claimed<\/a> to \u201cwant a future that protects American labor, not foreign labor,\u201d\u00a0he also declared<\/a>: \u201cI don\u2019t care what you get in the next two weeks, or three weeks, or five weeks\u2026. I don\u2019t think you\u2019re picketing for the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n This content can also be viewed on the site it originates<\/a> from.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n What UAW members are striking for is a 40% pay increase\u2014which Trump did not back on Wednesday, in contrast to Joe Biden,<\/strong> who on Tuesday supported<\/a> the demand, saying<\/a> the autoworkers deserve a \u201clot more\u201d than they are getting. Meanwhile, given that Trump\u2019s remarks were delivered at a nonunion plant<\/a>, it was not at all surprising to learn, per The New York Times<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> that at least some of Trump\u2019s audience was made up of people who weren\u2019t union employees, despite signs that suggested otherwise:<\/p>\n 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 \u201cUnion Members for Trump\u201d signs said they were not union members. The Trump campaign made no effort to recruit attendees through UAW locals, according to the union.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Appearing on CNN, UAW president Shawn Fain,<\/strong> whose endorsement Trump asked for throughout his speech, said: \u201cI find a pathetic irony that the former president is going to hold a rally for union members at a nonunion business.\u201d Hours before Trump\u2019s remarks, Mike Booth,<\/strong> UAW vice president for General Motors, put things in even harsher terms, telling<\/a> the Detroit Free Press<\/em> in an email: \u201cLet 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.\u201d<\/p>\n 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, \u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019re picketing for the right thing.\u201d As president, he did not express support for union members during the UAW\u2019s 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 \u201cblamed UAW members. He blamed our contracts for everything that was wrong with these companies.\u201d<\/p>\n In the interview with CNN, Fain confirmed he would not meet with Trump during the ex-president\u2019s visit to Michigan, saying: \u201cI see no point in meeting with him because I don\u2019t 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\u2019s what\u2019s wrong with this country.\u201d In a statement, Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz<\/strong> called<\/a> Trump\u2019s speech \u201ca pathetic, recycled attempt to feign support for working Americans,\u201d adding, \u201cAmericans have seen him try this before, and they aren\u2019t buying it. They know who Donald Trump really is: a billionaire charlatan running on empty words, broken promises, and lost jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nX content<\/h4>\n
\n