Donald Trump Is a Scab

Despite being openly against America's workers, so many of them are head over heels in love with the creep.

Courtesy of AFL-CIO

Last week, Donald Trump praised Elon Musk for firing striking workers. The comment was mentioned offhandedly in a way that revealed that Trump deeply respected the power to punish workers demanding better labor conditions. Musk, for his part, and seemingly more aware of the words that come out of his mouth — although not much more — just kind of grunted-giggled. 

Since then, Trump’s comment has rippled out across the lake, causing him a fair amount of problems with organized labor’s leadership. On Monday at the DNC, AOC declared to the world in a speech that finally removed her from being an “annoying Squad member” into a budding leadership role in the Democratic Party that Donald Trump was a “scab.” President Biden followed her speech by shouting to the heavens that “Trump is a scab.” 

Scab perfectly sums up exactly who Donald Trump has been throughout his entire professional and political life. Few real estate developers were as notoriously deceitful when paying laborers for their completed work. Trump’s empty proclamations that he is the best president to protect American workers have many times been proven false, if not ridiculous. And yet, many union members are hardcore MAGidiots.

“It’s no secret that over the course of time, he’s been very effective at messaging to working-class people,” said Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, of Trump. “The way he communicates on economic issues can be appealing because he talks about unfair trade policies that have decimated the Midwest and offshored jobs (Harris Seeks to Neutralize Trump’s Appeal).”

The appeal of Trump’s message is that he emotes about the world around him in a way that feeds the prejudices of many union members. I was once at a union meeting with my brother, who has been delivering Coke for the past thirty years. It was a Sunday afternoon, and the vote to strike or not was scheduled to begin and end before the Giants game started. As my brother introduced me to his “colleagues,” I was overwhelmed by the assortment of men in the room. It didn’t take any particular skill to understand that the overwhelming majority were Trumpists. MAGA hats were everywhere. 

Union leaders also admit that it is a challenge that members don’t always follow their endorsements. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers and a Harris ally, said “labor and labor leaders are not monoliths, nor do we have magic wands, nor do we have fairy dust. People make their own decisions (Harris Seeks to Neutralize Trump’s Appeal).”

I will not say that just because the men in that ballroom in the shadows of Newark Airport were bad. Many, like my brother, are hard-working family men. The one thing that united them was a lack of educational achievements. The overwhelming majority were high school graduates only, and some had yet to attain that level. When they learned I lived in Russia, I could see suspicion creeping into the eyes of some. I realized that most of the gathered union members loved Trump because he thinks, speaks, and jokes like they do. He hates the same people they do and regards women as objects to be used and tossed aside. There really isn’t much that Trump could do that would ever cause them to turn their backs on him.

Being a scab, however, might be the one sin that many of the men in that room that afternoon will find hard to defend. More than most American workers, Union members understand the value of an hour’s labor. They work hard, buy things, and love their downtime. Many guys in that room love their six-pack of beer after a hard day of hauling Coke around New Jersey. The enemy of that beer satisfaction is the scab, the person or thing that threatens their financial well-being. 

Democrats have landed on a very powerful message here. Donald Trump is a scab. This is a message that can sway many on-the-fence union members and high-school-educated white men, and if the message sticks, Trump will be doomed. The union members don’t care the least about transgender rights, Gaza, or even Ukraine, but they do care about that six-pack in front of their new, mega-pixeled plasma TV. 

Shout it to the rooftops: Trump is a scab!