Donald Trump Visits Michigan to Call for Economic Nationalism and Court Union Members

Former President Donald Trump visited Clinton Township, Michigan on Wednesday to address workers at Drake Enterprises and to call for a “revival” of the economic nationalism that fueled his successful 2016 campaign. Trump’s speech was also geared towards blue-collar workers in the midst of a United Auto Workers strike.

Trump repeated a line he’s been using for years, that autoworkers are “being sold down the river by their leadership.” He also frequently complained that Biden and other Democrats have been taking away union workers’ rights. He attributed the auto industry’s problems to foreign trade deals he has long railed against, which Biden and even many Republicans have supported in the past.

Despite Trump’s efforts to court rank-and-file union members separately from union leadership, which skews overwhelmingly Democratic, he won about four in 10 votes from union households in 2020. There have been some questionable takes published on a supposed shift in the Republican Party’s interest in supporting union workers’ rights.

Trump’s visit to Clinton Township was met with a crowd of more than 300 people, only a few of which were striking workers. The former President’s speech was an attempt to distract from the second Republican presidential debate. It remains to be seen if Trump’s efforts to court union members will be successful in the future.