The political sparring intensified as former President Donald Trump took aim at United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain, lambasting him as a "Weapon of Mass Destruction on Auto Workers," after the UAW threw its support behind President Joe Biden for reelection, per the Detroit Free Press.
Trump's verbal salvo was delivered via his social media platform, Truth Social, where he accused Fain of potentially being "under contract to China" and criticized the direction of the automobile industry under his watch, suggesting an imminent shift of "Car making" business to China, despite, last fall, the UAW having secured a record contract with Ford Motor Co., General Motors, and Stellantis that eventually led to pay raises for nonunion U.S. workers at several other automakers; the UAW is poised to unionize additional automakers in the country this year, the union stands its ground without commenting in reaction to Trump's post, according to the same Detroit Free Press report.
Trump's blast at Fain came soon after the union's endorsement, and subsequent remarks by Fain, branding Trump as representative of the billionaire class and a divider of people, as obtained by FOX 2 Detroit; Shawn Fain on CBS's Face The Nation emphasized Biden's commitment to the working class and juxtaposed it against Trump's self-serving tendencies.
Moreover, Fain credited Biden with standing by the union, notably conveying to Neil Cavuto on Fox that Biden supported the union through their contract fight with the Big Three automakers, a contrast to Trump's silence during GM's 40-day strike in 2019 and, a detail that highlights the union's rationale behind endorsing Biden as he navigates critical auto-making swing states such as Michigan and Wisconsin in his bid for reelection, reports suggest Trump, in trying to woo the union, pointed out what he believes are the flaws in Biden's policies, claiming the President sided with globalists at the expense of the American worker, "Crooked Joe backed every single bloodsucking globalist for half a century — and now he’s coming back for more," Trump’s campaign release on social media, an assertion challenged in Fain's strong rebuke of Trump as a "scab" and an opponent of the working class, quoted in the Washington Examiner.
