Trump chooses Michigan rally over debate
DETROIT — As his Republican rivals gather onstage in California for their second primary debate, former President Donald Trump was to be in battleground Michigan on Wednesday night working to win over blue-collar voters in the midst of an autoworkers’ strike.
The Republican front-runner’s trip comes a day after President Joe Biden became the first sitting president in U.S. history to walk a picket line, joining United Auto Workers in Detroit. The union is pushing for higher wages, shorter work weeks and assurances from the country’s top automakers that new electric vehicle jobs will be unionized.
The dueling appearances preview what will likely be a chief dynamic of the 2024 general election, which increasingly looks like a rematch between Trump and Biden. Michigan is expected to again be a critical battleground state as both candidates try to paint themselves as champions of the working class.
Trump’s decision to skip another debate comes as he maintains a commanding lead in the GOP primary — even as he faces four separate criminal indictments — and as his campaign works to pivot to the general election months before primary voting begins next year.
Trump was scheduled to deliver prime-time remarks at Drake Enterprises, a nonunionized auto parts supplier in Clinton Township, about a half-hour outside Detroit.
The former president has tried to capitalize on the strike to drive a wedge between Biden and union workers, a constituency that helped pave the way for his surprise 2016 victory. Trump in that election won over voters in Democratic strongholds like Michigan, fundamentally reshaping voting alliances as he vowed to resurrect dying manufacturing towns.
But Biden won those states back in 2020 as he emphasized his working-class roots and commitment to organized labor.
Trump, this time around, is seeking to capitalize on discontent over Biden’s handling of the economy amid persistent inflation. He has repeatedly warned that Biden’s embrace of electric vehicles will ultimately lead to lost jobs, amplifying the concerns of some autoworkers who worry that electric cars require fewer people to manufacture and there is no guarantee factories that produce them will be unionized.
“Joe Biden’s draconian and indefensible Electric Vehicle mandate will annihilate the U.S. auto industry and cost countless thousands of autoworkers their jobs,” Trump railed in a statement after Biden’s visit Tuesday.
Union leaders know the transition to electric vehicles is coming, but whether new battery manufacturing plants will be unionized is a major UAW concern in contract negotiations. They say solidifying the union’s role in the auto industry’s clean energy future will ensure higher wages and job security.
The UAW’S targeted strikes against the Big Three automakers — General Motors, Stellantis and Ford — began at midnight Sept. 14 and have since expanded to 38 parts distribution centers in 20 states.