Trump rips UAW president: ‘Get rid of this dope’

Former President Trump dug into United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain on Sunday for his endorsement of President Biden, arguing the union leader does not “understand” the future of the automobile industry.

Trump, in a Truth Social post Sunday, said he watched Fain’s interview with CBS News’s “Face the Nation” earlier in the day, in which the UAW leader took multiple swipes at the former president.

The former president called Fain a “STIFF” who is helping sell the automobile industry “right into the big, powerful hands of China.”

“[Fain] bought into Biden’s ‘vision’ of all Electric Vehicles, which require far fewer workers to make each car but, more importantly, are not wanted in large numbers by the consumer, and will ALL be made in China,” Trump continued, in reference to the Biden administration’s push toward electric vehicles (EVs).

“I want them to be made in the USA, every type of car, and would require China, and other countries, through TARIFFS, or otherwise, to build plants here, with our workers. Now they are building in Mexico, the biggest plants anywhere, and selling their cars, Tariff Free, into the good ol’ USA. Shawn Fain doesn’t understand this or have a clue. Get rid of this dope & vote for DJT. I will bring the Automobile Industry back to our Country,” he added.

The Hill reached out to the UAW for comment.

Fain, earlier Sunday, spoke with CBS News about the union’s endorsement of Biden and touted the president’s support of the UAW’s efforts, especially in its recent strike against the Big Three automakers.

“When you look at these two candidates, you know, Joe Biden has a history of serving others, and serving the working class, and fighting for the working class, standing with the working class,” Fain said Sunday. “Donald Trump has a history of serving himself and standing for the billionaire class. And that’s contrary to everything that working-class people stand for.”

The union formally endorsed Biden’s reelection campaign last week. Fain at the time called Trump a “scab.”

“Donald Trump is a billionaire, and that’s who he represents. If Donald Trump ever worked in an auto plant, he wouldn’t be a UAW member,” Fain said. “He’d be a company man trying to squeeze the American worker. Donald Trump stands against everything we stand for as a union.”

The formal endorsement was somewhat delayed amidst the union’s concerns the Biden administration’s push for a transition to electric vehicles could take away industry jobs.

Fain said Sunday that the UAW “has always been at the forefront of environmental issues, and of working-class issues.”

“The biggest thing to us is, no matter which way we go on this, we’re gonna have security for our members and for the working-class people,” Fain continued, pointing to the assurances in the UAW’s new contract. “So we’re not afraid of where we’re headed, no matter where this industry goes.”

Trump has repeatedly targeted the Biden administration’s EV policies along the campaign trail and claimed in September the polices will make it so “the Great State of Michigan will not have an auto industry anymore.”

The Biden-Harris campaign responded to Trump’s latest attack Sunday, taking a jab at the former president using Fain’s “scab” remark.

“So…apparently losing the UAW endorsement to Joe Biden has left Donald Trump’s wounded ego with quite the SCAB,” Biden-Harris 2024 communications director Michael Tyler wrote in a statement.