Politics

WATCH: Tim Walz Visibly Demoralized As Tapper Reads Out Union Statement Supporting Trump Tariffs

Published

5 days ago

April 7, 2025

America’s working men and women are not buying Tim Walz’s claim that President Donald Trump’s tariffs are going to lead to the decimation of their ranks. Instead, many are now publicly cheering the president on in the face of bearish global markets and calling on Americans to hold firm so that domestic union jobs may be protected and expanded.

The former vice presidential candidate looked lugubrious as CNN’s Jake Tapper read a statement by the United Auto Workers, America’s largest union for automotive employees, praising President Trump for implementing a 25% tariff on all foreign-assembled vehicles around the globe, with the exception of Canada and Mexico. Walz, usually known for his witty retorts, didn’t have much to say in response.

Trump “has support from the UAW,” Tapper stated on Sunday, pointing out that some of the domestic auto manufacturing is taking place in Walz’s home state of Minnesota.

“This is a long overdue shift away from a harmful economic framework that has devastated the working class. It signals a return to policies that prioritize the workers who build this country — rather than the greed of ruthless corporations,” the union said in a statement read by the reporter.

By Sunday, a clip of the frowny-faced Walz listening dejectedly was pinging across the internet in a viral sensation.

WATCH:

The UAW, which endorsed former Vice President Kamala Harris last year, couldn’t have sounded more different than it did back then.

“In 2024, we’ve got a choice. We can put a billionaire back in office and let him and his buddies get even richer. Or we can elect somebody who’s ready to stand with us. Somebody who’s walked a picket line,” the auto union said in its August 2024 endorsement of the Democrat.

Their election-year opposition to Trump was not shared by all auto workers, however. Many thanked the Republican for promising to terminate the Biden-Harris administration’s electric vehicle mandates which they argued would cause the shuttering of midwestern manufacturing plants and put droves of union members out of work.

Already, there are signs of progress for the industry thanks to Trump’s tariffs. Shortly before they went into effect last week, Honda announced it would be relocating the production of its 2025 Civics to Indiana from Guadalajara, Mexico. That shift was quickly followed by a deal from Ford which lets new customers purchase their vehicles at employee prices, potentially saving them thousands of dollars.

Neither is the UAW the only union standing behind Trump’s tariffs. Sean O’Brien, president of the Teamsters, said he believes those policies will create “good-paying, middle-class jobs” for the next generation of union workers.

“We need to find out what we agree on,” he told the Boston Herald. “Why wouldn’t we talk to Republicans? President Trump could cure cancer and the Democrats would still be opposed to him.”

O’Brien famously spoke at the Republican National Convention last August after commissioning an internal poll of Teamsters members on their preference for president. Over 63% of respondents said they planned to vote for Trump, causing O’Brien to announce the union would not make an endorsement in the race, the first time the Teamsters refrained from doing so since 1996.