Trump skips tonight’s Republican debate to speak at nonunion auto factory

As the second Republican debate kicks off in California, Trump is skipping out to address autoworkers in Michigan. Few striking UAW members are expected to join.
CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Former President Donald Trump called for a “revival” of the economic nationalism that fueled his successful 2016 campaign in a visit here Wednesday aimed at distracting from the second Republican presidential primary debate.
Trump’s speech at a nonunion auto parts company was also geared toward blue-collar workers in the midst of a United Auto Workers strike. President Joe Biden made history Tuesday by joining a picket line outside Detroit, becoming the first sitting president to do so.
Addressing an audience of more than 300 that included only a few of the striking workers, Trump ascribed the auto industry’s problems to foreign trade deals he has long railed against — pacts that Biden and even many Republicans have supported in the past. Trump also frequently complained that Biden and Democrats were pushing electric vehicles to please environmental activists at the expense of an industry still heavily centered on gas-powered cars.
“Joe Biden claims to be the most pro-union president in history,” said Trump, who toured one of the company’s factories before he began his remarks. “His entire career has been an act of economic treason and union destruction.”
He added a direct appeal to UAW officials.
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