When Joe Biden became the first president to join a picket line this past September for the UAW, the Trump campaign scrambled to do something to counter the move. Michigan is a critical state for both campaigns, and when auto workers went on strike last fall, Biden made it clear that he was on the side of the workers, and for that he was recently rewarded with the UAW endorsement.
What did Trump do? He did what he always does – used money and stagecraft to create the illusion of substance while doing absolutely nothing to help anyone. We saw this same production with the train derailment in East Palestine, OH, where Trump flew in for a photo op, passed out expired waters from one of his resorts, and had a few pallets of Goya beans from his friend flown in. Now we learn from recent FEC filings from his PAC that he did the same thing during the autoworkers strike.
The Trump campaign paid Drake Enterprises, a non-union auto parts shop in Clinton Township, $20,000 to stage a fake event with people holding up “Union Members for Trump” signs behind him to make it look like he was holding a rally with union auto workers on strike. During the rally, he rambled nonsense that if he wasn’t elected the entire American auto industry was going to move to China.
Reporters interviewing attendees at the rally learned that virtually none of the people holding signs belonged to any union – they were just told to hold them behind Trump while he spoke. Some participants interviewed said that they did not see any striking workers in attendance.
Now, we learn that the entire thing was a paid, fake production from the Trump campaign, just like everything else they do.