In a strategic move to dismantle former President Trump’s reputation as a successful real estate developer, President Biden has garnered the endorsement of the North America’s Building Trades Unions. At a bustling event held in Washington, D.C., Biden and union leaders unleashed a barrage of criticism against Trump’s business acumen and his fitness to hold office.
Sean McGarvey, the organization’s president, minced no words: “Donald Trump is incapable of running anything. God help us if he gets anywhere near the White House in the future.” The event, which took place in a Washington hotel ballroom, was part of a larger battle to secure votes from blue-collar workers. Trump has tirelessly attempted to chip away at the Democratic Party’s traditional advantage with organized labor, while Biden has been bolstering his own endorsements and fending off Trump’s comeback bid.
Biden expressed his confidence that unions would contribute to Trump’s downfall: “We’re going to make him a loser again.” He ridiculed Trump’s failure to pass infrastructure legislation during his presidency, mocking, “He never built a damn thing.” The Democratic president repeatedly castigated his likely Republican opponent as a ruthless businessman whose penchant for firing people was reduced to entertainment as part of his long-running reality show, “The Apprentice.”
“He looks down on us. I’m not joking. Think about it,” Biden said. “Think about the guys you grew up with that you’d like to get in the corner and just give him a straight left. I’m not suggesting you hit the president. But we all know those guys growing up.”
Biden’s recent campaign stop in his childhood hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, has led to his increased use of economic arguments to portray Trump as disconnected from the concerns of workers. “It’s either Scranton values or Mar-a-Lago values,” Biden declared.
The endorsement by the building trades unions adds to Biden’s already substantial union support. In January, the United Auto Workers backed Biden, followed by the United Steelworkers Union in March.
Despite efforts by Trump to seek support from organized labor, including a meeting with the Teamsters earlier this year, he has yet to respond to a request for comment on the latest endorsement. “Usually a Republican wouldn’t get that endorsement,” Trump had previously remarked. “But in my case it’s different because I’ve employed thousands of Teamsters and I thought we should come over and pay our respects.”
Trump’s enduring popularity with white working-class voters poses a challenge for Democrats, who continue to puzzle over his appeal. McGarvey vowed “an unprecedented field program in key battleground states” to help defeat Trump in the upcoming election.
