Trump seeks UAW endorsement while criticizing EVs, Biden in Michigan

CLINTON, Miss. — Former President Donald Trump tried Wednesday night to appeal to blue-collar auto workers by criticizing electric vehicles and warning of the unproven demise of the U.S. auto industry, while he asked UAW members to encourage union leaders to support he.

“Tell your UAW leaders — no problem — but they have to support Trump,” he said Wednesday night at an autoworker-centered rally at a non-union auto parts supplier in suburban Detroit. .”

Trump, the Republican frontrunner in the 2024 presidential race, repeatedly encouraged the United Auto Workers to support him during his roughly hour-long speech. He mocked President Joe Biden and pledged to save the U.S. auto industry from being wiped out in the coming years by current Democratic policies, including a push for electric vehicles.

Trump has said at one point that he doesn’t mind electric vehicles but believes consumers should be able to choose between such vehicles as well as traditional gasoline and diesel models. He decried Biden’s goal of having half of new cars sold electric by 2030, as well as the auto industry’s current reliance on China for batteries and other parts.

“If you want to buy an electric car, that’s absolutely fine. I’m all for it,” Trump said. “But we shouldn’t force consumers to buy electric cars they don’t want to buy.”

As Trump visits, UAW continues to target General Motors, Ford and star. At 11:59 pm on September 14, the contract between the 146,000 UAW members and the Detroit automaker expired, and the two sides failed to reach a tentative agreement.

About 18,300 UAW members are currently on strike at the Detroit automaker, and the union has warned of more strikes if no substantial progress is made in talks on Friday.

Trump made several references to striking union workers and negotiations in his speech, focusing mainly on how negotiations would be irrelevant if the auto industry was wiped out.

“It makes no difference to what you get because in two years you’re going to be broke,” Trump said.

A UAW spokesman declined to comment on Trump’s remarks after the event, which the former president attended rather than the second Republican debate.

UAW President Sean Fein joined Biden on a UAW picket line in suburban Detroit on Tuesday afternoon and later harshly criticized Trump and his visit to Michigan.

The outspoken union leader has previously decried Trump’s track record with the auto unions and criticized Trump’s Wednesday visit to a non-union company called Drake Enterprises.

“I find it a sad irony that the former president will hold a rally for union members at a non-union business,” Fein said in an interview Tuesday. CNN Night. “All you have to do is look at his track record – his track record speaks for itself.”

While the UAW has historically supported Democrats, including Biden in 2020, Fein has refused to allow the union to re-endorse the president, who calls himself “the most pro-union president in American history,” over concerns about electric vehicles.

Fein, who stood on the picket line with Biden at the Willow Run Redistribution Center, called the president’s joining the picket line a “historic moment.” But he stopped short of formally endorsing the commander-in-chief for next year’s presidential election.

Fein has repeatedly said he believes a second Trump term would be a “disaster,” but the former president has won over many rank-and-file union members.

Retiree Brian Pannebecker worked for Chrysler and Ford for more than 30 years and is an avid Trump supporter. He said the UAW and auto workers should support Trump given his past trade policies and stance on electric vehicles.

“Donald Trump is not going to push this electric vehicle type mandate to companies or consumers,” he said at Wednesday’s rally.