Donald Trump Headed for Disappointment

Former President Donald Trump is headed for disappointment from the auto workers union, who are unlikely to grant his wish of a 2024 endorsement.

Skipping the second Republican presidential debate, Trump appeared at an auto plant in the suburbs of Detroit on Wednesday night to deliver remarks on the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike that has seen roughly 18,300 workers walk off the job since September 14. The UAW represents employees at the Big Three automakers: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.

It's unclear how many union members attended Trump's speech as the facility was a non-UAW plant, but Trump repeatedly urged the UAW to endorse him for the next presidential election, at one point directly appealing to UAW President Shawn Fain.

"Your head man, Shawn, he's a good man, but he's got to endorse Trump," the former president told the audience.

But the likelihood of a UAW endorsement for Trump is highly unlikely, labor and auto expert Arthur Wheaton told Newsweek.

"There's zero chance the UAW will endorse President Trump," Wheaton, Cornell University's director of labor studies, said. "If you read any of the statements from Shawn Fain, that will tell you that he is not going to endorse former President Trump. While there are issues with Democrats in [Fain's] mind, they pale in comparison with the issues on the Republican side."

So far, Fain has withheld an endorsement for President Joe Biden's re-election campaign, making UAW the only major union that has not yet backed the self-proclaimed "most pro-union president in history" for 2024. But Fain did appear alongside Biden during the president's trip to a Detroit union plan just a day before Trump's visit. He's also been critical of Trump's labor record.

"I find the pathetic irony that the former president is going to hold a rally for union members at a non-union business," Fain told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday. "All you have to do is look at his track record. His track record speaks for itself. In 2008, during the Great Recession, he blamed UAW members. He blamed our contracts for everything that was wrong with these countries."

"I see no point in meeting with him because I don't think the man has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for," the union president said. "He serves the billionaire class, and that's what's wrong with the country."

Wheaton added that even though there's immense pressure for the UAW to back Biden, any endorsement from the union will be unlikely before a deal with the Big Three is reached.

"There's really no upside for the UAW to endorse Biden until they ratify their contract," he said. "Why would they want to split their membership, which, according to some estimates, almost 40 percent voted for Trump? Why would you want to split that ratification vote when you're going to need absolutely everyone you can?"

While Trump said he supported the UAW's push for fair wages, he said the bigger problem that workers should be concerned about is the promotion of electric vehicles.

"The auto industry is being assassinated," Trump said. "If you want to buy an electric car, that's absolutely fine. I'm all for it. But we should not be forcing consumers to buy electric vehicles they don't want to buy."

He also accused Biden of selling out auto workers to China, "environmental extremists and the radical left" and warned striking workers, "You're all on the picket lines and everything, but it doesn't make a damn bit of difference what you get, because in two years you're all going to be out of business."

Among UAW's demands are increased wages, a shortened workweek and union representation at electric vehicle battery factories, among other things.

While the industry's transition to electric vehicles is a major talking point in the ongoing negotiations, Wheaton pointed out that auto workers have come to terms with electric vehicles becoming the future and that their terms in the current labor action reflect a shift in opinion that goes opposite to what Trump called for.

"In the past, the UAW would try to fight some of the fuel efficiency standards, and they have not done that [this time]," Wheaton said. "So there is no fight, trying to block the transition to electric vehicles. The UAW just wants to make sure they're part of it."