Media Turns Random Trump Campaign Rally in Detroit Into “Trump Standing With Striking Autoworkers” Headlines
Giving a campaign speech vaguely in the proximity of strikes is not showing support for strikers.
As I noted earlier this week in The Real News, corporate media is not digging below the surface-level support so-called “Republican populists” are offering to striking UAW workers. It turns out all conservatives need to do to receive rose-tinted reporting that vaguely feels like they’re pro-worker without saying anything of substance is to proclaim they “stand” with “workers” before pivoting to a list of grievances—typically involving China and “radical climate mandates”—that have nothing to do with any of the actual union demands.
Nowhere is this dynamic more grating than that of former president Donald Trump, who has received a week of largely uncritical press coverage because he announced a campaign rally in Detroit that may or may not be in the same zip code as striking workers. Note the stream of breathless headlines:
CBS News: “Ahead of former President Trump's expected visit to Detroit to hold an event with striking UAW workers”
MSNBC: Trump considering UAW picket-line appearance during GOP debate.
AP: “Former President Trump confirms he'll skip next week's gathering, planning to meet instead with Michigan autoworkers as the UAW proceeds”.
Frobes: Trump plans on traveling to Detroit to give a speech to union workers instead of attending the Republican primary debate, according to reports.
Reuters: Former US President Donald Trump plans to give a speech in Detroit on Sept. 27 to a crowd of union workers.
CNBC: Trump plans to give speech to autoworkers in Detroit, skipping second GOP debate
The worst offender, Wall Street Journal, told readers in its subheadline about Trump’s announcement, that “Republican lawmakers are siding with UAW workers instead of corporations,” which is 100 percent false.
Through Vibes, press releases, and vague rhetoric, many in the public are getting the impression that Trump and other Republicans are somehow on the side of the worker because they’re “giving a speech” to some? workers? Or something?
The above headlines are, at best, misleading and, at worst, outright false. Trump is not “holding an event with striking UAW workers” as CBS announced. He is not doing anything with UAW or any of its political representatives. When one actually reads reports of his supposed “going to Detroit to give a speech to autoworkers” stories, it becomes clear that he’s most likely handpicking some telegenic UAW members to stand behind him for a speech where he’ll rant against climate mandates and China. Trump is not coordinating anything with UAW’s elected leadership. Random workers are, of course, free to attend whatever political events they want. But this is not the same as standing with any actual union or meaningful cohort of workers. It’s just Some Guys. Trump has been openly and categorically rejected by UAW and its duly elected leadership over and over again. “Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement released ahead of Trump’s planned visit.
All that is happening is Trump is hosting a campaign rally vaguely in Detroit. The New York Times, which “broke” the story, reports that a picket visit is “unlikely.” Above all, and a fact that’s left out of virtually all of this reporting, is that Trump—like all the right-wing “populists” getting similarly credulous coverage—has not openly supported any of the UAW’s actual demands.
When asked by NBC News’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker which side of the struggle he landed on, Trump refused to take a side.
What Trump was doing when he announced the Detroit rally—and what’s no doubt the goal of the actual speech itself—is to do what he has always done: vague P.R. gestures that are designed to generate friendly headlines. He moves so quickly, he’s so apt at tapping into media narratives, and before one reads the fine print the meme has already been planted in public discourse: Did you hear, Trump is going to visit striking workers in Detroit? He’s not though—he’s simply doing a campaign rally in the same city as striking workers and may or may not find a handful to stand behind him while wearing working-class attire. It’s a photo op, nothing more.
There has been some pushback from the AP and Politico in the past 48 hours over this narrative, doing what reporters ought to have done from day one, which is to question the substance and actual track record of Trump when it comes to Labor. After all, he was president for four years—it’s not like he doesn’t have a clear-as-day anti-labor record journalists can compare to his fluffy rhetoric.
There is another dynamic at work here that needs mention. The appeal of the “Populist Trump makes a play for union workers” narrative goes beyond the typical inadequacies of our media reports on Trump, many of which remain unaddressed eight years into his presidential campaign era, which never truly ended and likely won’t until he dies or ends up in prison. The goal is not so much to do Trump’s bidding as it is to taint the image of the UAW and blue-collar workers in general. It’s informed by cultural elitism that views wage workers as composed of easily manipulated yokels and/or racists who love a good fist-pumping demagogue over substance. Clearly, some do—any broad group of people will have all types of ideologies—but the reality is Trump lost union households to Biden by 17 points in 2020, according to Edison Research exit polls. And the actual elected leadership of UAW has told Trump to jump on a bike without a seat. So what are we doing here? How is Trump “meeting with striking autoworkers” or “considering a UAW picket-line appearance” in any meaningful sense? He’s not. He’s just having a campaign rally in Detroit that may or may not involve a handful of UAW members as window dressing. This is the reality and it ought to, from the beginning of this stunt, have been the headline.
Update: when this piece published on Sept 22, Biden had not agreed to join a UAW picket line. A paragraph detailing his failure to do so has been removed and the piece has been updated to reflect this new information.