Former President Donald Trump’s plan to visit United Auto Workers (UAW) members who are striking in Detroit, Michigan, is causing some Democrats close to the White House to freak out and think that the Biden campaign needs to “step up,” according to a Politico report.
Trump is expected to skip the second GOP Presidential debate on Sept. 27, instead planning to speak with current and former UAW members in Detroit. The move has caused Democrats close to the White House to worry that the former president’s 2024 campaign strategy may be more sophisticated than in the past, according to a Politico report.
“Trump scooped us. Now if we announce we’re going, it looks like we’re just going because of Trump,” a national Democratic strategist told the outlet. “We waited too long. That’s the challenge.”
The UAW began its strike shortly after its contract with automakers expired on Sept. 14. The union is demanding a 46% pay raise over five years and a shortened work week while asking to be paid for a 40-hour work week.
Some Democrats close to the White House said the move is viewed as a “cynical ploy” to earn the support of striking UAW members, Politico reported. One union worker told the outlet that “[Trump] actually has people who know what they’re doing. He boxed Biden in. It was kinda genius.”
The Biden campaign and the White House have rejected the idea that Trump’s plan to visit Detroit “boxed Biden in,” Politico reported. The assessment comes after the White House reversed its decision to send two top officials to Detroit to support negotiations between the UAW and automaker companies on Monday, instead opting to hold a Zoom call between the parties.
United Auto Workers members strike at the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant on September 16, 2023 in Wayne, Michigan. This is the first time in history that the UAW is striking all three of the Big Three auto makers, Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, at the same time. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
Biden has come under fire since the strike was announced for failing to handle the situation better as some UAW members say they hope he’s replaced on the 2024 ticket. (RELATED: ‘We Are Going To Go Off The Brand’: UAW Worker Rips Biden, Says ‘We Need To Change Things’)
“People are talking about them trying to interject themselves into our — into our negotiations,” Shawn Fain, president of the UAW, said earlier this week. “Our negotiators are fighting hard. Our leadership’s fighting hard. It’s going to be won at the negotiating table with our negotiating teams, with our members manning the picket lines and our allies out there. Who the president is now, who the former president was or the president before them, isn’t going to win this fight.”