2023-09-28 08:41:19
While the rest of the Republican presidential candidates faced their second primary debate in California, Donald Trump gave a master class in Trumpism last night in Michigan. Specifically, in Clinton Township (Michigan), a few kilometers from the picket in Detroit where President Joe Biden participated on Tuesday. The tycoon, aware of his overwhelming advantage in the polls (41 points separate him of second place, Ron DeSantis), not only chose to skip his party’s debate, but counterscheduled it during prime time.
The picket strikers that Biden visited: “We sweat to build cars and we can’t afford to buy them”
Further
“Biden and the environmental lunatics are destroying the auto industry. “I’m not going to let that happen,” Trump said, apocalyptic, before a hundred people at the headquarters of Drake Enterprises, a company that manufactures components for Ford and General Motors cars. “In two years you will be out of work,” he warned, reiterating that the Biden administration’s commitment to the electric car “is suicide” and “will destroy the supply chain.”
“They are selling you to China,” stated the former president, who alleges that the electric car industry is going to destroy thousands of jobs in the United States for the benefit of the Asian Giant, the world’s leading battery manufacturer. “A vote for Trump means that the future of the automobile will be made in America, powered by American energy, supplied by American suppliers, sculpted from American aluminum and steel, and built by high-wage American hands,” he promised, defining his proposal as “protectionist patriotism.”
The tycoon is trying to capitalize on the disenchantment of auto workers, who have been in the middle of a historic strike for two weeks against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, the three main motor companies in the US. But he has never supported the specific demands of the strikers, which include a 40% salary increase, a reduction in the working day to 4 days (32 hours a week), linking salaries to the cost of living and lifetime retirement plans, among other demands.
The Trump campaign distributed signs reading “Auto Workers” or “Pro-Trump Union Members” to attendees, implying that it has the support of striking auto workers. However, none of the twenty attendees with whom eldiario.es was able to speak in Clinton Township even worked in the automotive sector. At the event, many red caps could also be seen – most of them with the motto Make America Great Again–, but none from the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, which represents some 150,000 motor workers nationwide.
“To the workers on strike I say: I support your goal of having fair salaries, but you will not have them as long as the corrupt Biden remains in charge,” Trump reiterated. “Just convince your teammates and your leaders to support me and I’ll take care of the rest.” The former president tried at all times to differentiate rank-and-file workers from union leaders, who have repeatedly expressed their rejection of Trump.
UAW President Sawn Fain, who appeared alongside Biden on the picket line on Tuesday, refused a meeting with Trump on Wednesday because, given his anti-union record and economic policy, “he serves billionaires and not the working class.” ”. In fact, unlike Biden, who joined the union-organized strike, Trump gave his speech at a non-union factory.
Hunting the workers’ vote
The visit of the last two US presidents to the state that saw the birth of Fordism a century ago is no coincidence. Michigan, which has been a Democratic fiefdom for decades, was one of the states that changed color in 2016 to pave Trump’s way to the White House. The same happened with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, two states with a declining industry, which are also part of the so-called rust belt (Rust Belt).
In 2020, Biden managed to narrowly recover those majorities, which once made up the so-called Democratic blue wall. Looking ahead to the 2024 elections, they are once again called to be key states in the presidential battle. “Yesterday, Biden came to Michigan to pose for photos at the picket, but his policies will send Michigan auto workers to the unemployment line,” Trump denounced during his markedly electoral speech.
However, among those attending this Wednesday’s rally there was a tiny representation of these workers. Of course, everyone interviewed by eldiario.es ventured to speak on behalf of their family and friends, who are in the main industrial sector of Michigan. “This strike should end as soon as possible. “The workers and the economy are going to suffer too much,” said Mary, 73, who was holding a banner that read “automotive workers with Trump 2024.”
“The strike is a bit excessive,” insisted Donald Atkinson, 53, who chose to wear his military attire for the occasion. “But it is true that they gave up many things in the past, and it is normal that they want them back,” he acknowledged, in reference to the concessions that the union made during the 2008 crisis, such as the renunciation of contract adjustments for the salary to the cost of living or to life pensions.
What is clear to him is that the transition to electric cars is not the way: “they want to do everything too quickly, but the technology is not ready. People are blown away, cars are catching fire and people are being electrocuted,” he says. “Biden is a puppet. He is controlled by those above. Trump was not, and that is why they are doing everything possible – with the four indictments – to prevent him from returning to power.”
An opinion shared by Gary, 48, dressed in a t-shirt with the former president’s iconic mugshot: “everyone I know supports Trump. In 2020, the streets were full of his supporters and no one supported Biden. “I still don’t believe they counted the votes properly, and I don’t think they will next year.”
Trump’s shadow in the primary debate
The four indictments and the multiple sentences against his real estate empire, the last one this Tuesday, have not been any obstacle for Trump, who accumulates more support with each passing day: 54% of Republicans prefer him, based on the FiveThirtyEight model. While taking a new mass bath in prime timeseven of his opponents, those who met the requirements to participate in the second primary debate, tried to avoid the long shadow of the former president to make their voices heard.
They didn’t get it. The second primary debate became, as happened with the first, a constant reference, implicit or explicit, to the absent magnate. “Donald Trump, I know you’re watching this. You can not avoid it. You are not absent because of the polls: you are afraid to defend your presidency. If you continue not to appear, we will not call you Donald Trump, but Donald Duck,” joked Chris Christie, turning Donald Duck into trending topic In U.S.A.
“We’re going to call you Donald Duck” pic.twitter.com/JqAx54XNGj
— jordan (@JordanUhl) September 28, 2023
DeSantis, the only candidate who, apart from Trump, exceeds 10% of Republican support, also charged against the former president: “Donald Trump is missing. He would have to be here tonight to defend his presidency and respond to the 7,800 billion that he added to the debt, which was the origin of the inflation that we now have.”
About 3,500 kilometers away, Trump made fun of the debate, ensuring that it was “a job interview,” where the candidates “want to be secretaries of something, even vice presidents. Do you think they could become one? I don’t think so… They don’t move the masses like I do.”
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