Former President Donald Trump called the United Auto Workers a “hopeless case” for endorsing President Biden.
Mr. Trump took his shot in an interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, saying the union’s leaders have “led their industry right into the poor house.”
“If Biden gets elected, you won’t have an autoworker working in the United States,” he said during the broadcast, which will air Sunday. “Everything’s going over to China and other countries outside.”
The former president and UAW President Shawn Fain have taken swings at each other multiple times. After the union endorsed Mr. Biden last week, Mr. Trump called Mr. Fain a “dope” for buying into the president’s electric vehicle “vision” and for helping sell the car industry to China.
Mr. Fain said the union endorsed Mr. Biden because he has a “history of serving others, [while] Donald Trump has a history of serving himself and standing for the billionaire class.”
When Mr. Trump announced he would visit Michigan in September to speak with the striking autoworkers, Mr. Fain made it clear he wasn’t welcome.
“Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers,” Mr. Fain said at the time. “We can’t keep electing billionaires and millionaires that don’t have any understanding what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to get by and expecting them to solve the problems of the working class.”
During his appearance on CNN’s “The Source” Thursday, Mr. Fain said he can’t see “any way in hell” that Mr. Trump will get a union endorsement.
The comment came after Mr. Trump met with Teamsters leaders and union members in Washington Wednesday.
“The man stands against everything that working-class people stand for, that organized labor stands for,” Mr. Fain said. “You know, look, [the Teamsters] 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.’”
Mr. Trump called the meeting with Teamsters President Sean O’Brien and workers “very productive.”
“We had a very strong meeting with the Teamsters. Over the years I’ve employed thousands and thousands of Teamsters, and they’ve done a great job, especially in New York where we have a lot of unions,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re with Sean O’Brien and [Secretary-Treasurer] Fred Zuckerman and they’re terrific people, great leaders, actually. And I think we had a very productive meeting.”
Mr. O’Brien said the meeting between the former president and rank-and-file workers went well.
“We had a long conversation and dialogue about right to work, [the Protecting the Right to Organize Act], making it easier to organize, supporting workers rights legislation, working together on bankruptcy reform,” he said. “Today’s dialogue was basically about putting our issues out on the table and letting people know, letting the candidates know how important these issues are. And this is what is going to determine an endorsement or nonendorsement.”
Mr. O’Brien went on to stress the importance of whom his union will back for president.
“This is gonna be the most important decision under our administration, the O’Brien-Zuckerman administration, so we need to get it right,” he said. “And the way we’re gonna get it right is the inclusiveness and transparency of our 1.3 million rank-and-file members.”
Historically, union political support has gone to Democrats, but when asked about a potential endorsement from the Teamsters, Mr. Trump, the leading candidate for the GOP nomination, said, “Stranger things have happened.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.