Belabored Don tweet: Bah to AFL-CIO’s No. 1
President Trump started off Labor Day by accusing the nation’s top organized labor leader of acting against the interests of American “working men and women.”
“Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, represented his union poorly on television this weekend,” Trump tweeted shortly after dawn. “Some of the things he said were so against the working men and women of our country, and the success of the U.S. itself, that it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly.”
“A Dem!” the President added.
AFL-CIO spokesmen did not return requests for comment from the Daily News.
Trump’s federal holiday fighting words came on the heels of Trumka criticizing him over threatening to exclude Canada from a trade deal meant to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“The three countries in North America, the economy is pretty integrated,” Trumka, whose organization represents more than 12 million workers, said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“And it’s pretty hard to see how that would work without having Canada in the deal.”
Trumka also ripped Trump over the GOP tax bill and failing to defend Obama-era overtime pay mandates.
“Unfortunately, to date, the things he has done to hurt workers outpace what he has done to help workers,” Trumka said.
Trump faced bipartisan criticism last week when he conspicuously left Canada out of a new trade deal with Mexico.
The President followed that up with a tweet claiming, “There’s no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal.”
“If we don’t make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out,” the President tweeted.
Lawmakers and trade experts have cautioned Trump against cutting a deal without Canada, saying it would end up hurting American consumers.
Trump’s attack on Trumka drew swift condemnation from Democrats.
“Just this morning he was tweeting against Richard Trumka, the head of the AFLCIO. Look, I’m here to say on Labor Day, that working people, union people are fighting back,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said at an event shortly after Trump’s initial tweet. “When unions fight back, all workers get stronger.”