Former President Donald Trump said the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters (UA) are jobless due to President Joe Biden ending the Keystone XL Pipeline construction.
The former president issued a statement Friday that the UA should vote Biden out of office and stop paying their union dues, despite endorsing his presidential run in 2020. Keystone would have built roughly two thousand miles of pipeline and carry 8,000 barrels of oil from Canada to Texas.
Biden issued an executive order in January to revoke a permit for the Keystone Pipeline’s construction. Following this, the Canadian company TC Energy announced that they are terminating the project Wednesday, CNN reported.
“The union representing the great workers building the Keystone XL Pipeline endorsed Biden. Now, their [the UA’s] workers have no jobs and the pipeline, which was well under construction (like the Southern Border Wall), has been shut down, with thousands of jobs lost and the company announcing yesterday that they are ‘permanently pulling out,'” Trump said.
The Keystone Pipeline would have offered 10,400 construction jobs over several seasons and its cancellation eliminated 1,000 union jobs.
“You should vote these people out of office immediately, and stop paying your union dues.”
– June 11, 2021 –
Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America
The union representing the great workers building the Keystone XL Pipeline endorsed Biden. Now their workers have no jobs and the pipeline, which was well under… (cont. 1 of 3)
— Sassypaws ???????? (@Sassypaws) June 11, 2021
The UA’s president, Mark McManus, condemned Biden’s executive order saying the administration has left thousands of union workers jobless and that the president ignored the unions and American consumers, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). (RELATED: ‘An Administration Trying To Crush Your Future’: Laid-Off Keystone Workers Express Anger Over Biden’s Executive Order)
“In revoking this permit, the Biden administration has chosen to listen to the voices of fringe activists instead of union members and the American consumer on Day 1,” McManus said, according to the CEI.
“Sadly, the Biden administration has now put thousands of union workers out of work. For the average American family, it means energy costs will go up and communities will no longer see the local investments that come with pipeline construction.”
The former president concluded that he said these consequences would happen under Biden before the “2020 Presidential Election Hoax.”
His administration approved the pipeline’s construction on March 24, 2017 after former President Barack Obama rejected the project due to global warming concerns.