Former US President Donald Trump met with the leaders of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Wednesday in a bid to secure their endorsement as the business mogul prepares to break the union’s support from Democrats. According to the polls, Donald Trump appears the likely candidate of the Republican party to face incumbent President Joe Biden in November this year.
His meeting in Washington comes days after he lost the endorsement of the United Auto Workers, to which he reacted angrily. Unions in the US have been on the rise and in this regard, the Teamsters have significant importance as they have been winning significant contracts.
Trump’s grip on the Republican presidential nomination has tightened after his victories in Iowa and New Hampshire this month. After the meeting, the 77-year-old was not sure whether Teamsters would endorse him as they supported Biden before the 2020 election.
However, the former president claimed that he enjoys strong support among the union’s members, saying that his pledge to impose tariffs on Chinese goods and to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants across the US-Mexico border, is backed by many people of the 1.3 million-member union.
“I’ve dealt with unions my whole life, I have a great relationship with unions,” the first-ever criminally charged ex-president said. “We had a very good discussion. The union has not announced their endorsement yet. Two hours before the scheduled meeting, the Trump campaign released a list of pledges by Trump, claiming that US workers will benefit from his policies.
Sean O’Brien, the Teamsters president, said the meeting with Trump had been “pleasant” and “direct”, adding that there still needed to be questions asked of both Trump and Biden and that “we’ve got a long way to go before we make a decision about an endorsement. According to the union boss, there was support for both Trump and Biden among his rank-and-file members.
The Biden campaign released a statement after Trump’s meeting, saying “the President looks forward to meeting with the Teamsters and earning their endorsement.”
Biden calls himself the most pro-union president in history, and the Teamsters endorsed him in 2020. Biden received a coveted endorsement last week, from the leadership of the almost 380,000-strong United Auto Workers (UAW), another key labor group in the Midwest, an important election battleground.
Separately, Biden will be in Michigan Thursday for a visit to a Detroit-area union hall to meet with UAW members, a campaign official told Reuters Tuesday.
UAW President Shawn Fain said that Biden had a history of serving the working class, while Trump “stands against everything we stand for,” citing among other things Trump’s appearance at a non-union hall during last year’s auto workers strike. He called Trump an anti-union “scab.”
Trump reacted furiously on his Truth Social platform Sunday, calling Fain a “stiff” and a “dope,” and urging auto workers to vote for him and not Biden in November.
Source: SABC
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