Michigan union boss calls Trump a ‘sociopath’ as Teamsters in swing states go to battle about who they will endorse

The chairman of the powerful Michigan Teamsters council vows that “sociopath” Donald Trump cannot win in his state, hours after the national union made a shocking decision to deny aid to his state in what Donald Trump called a victory.

“Our phones have been ringing off the hook all night about what the hell they’ve done,” Michigan Teamsters President Kevin Moore told DailyMail.com, amid curiosity about what the split could mean for one of the election’s most important prizes.

“This Donald Trump sociopath cannot survive in Michigan,” he said.

He said the state’s 243,000 members would do everything they could to get Democrat Kamala Harris elected. He also questioned the polling the national union cited to support the decision by General Chairman Sean O’Brien, which was approved by the state’s executive committee.

Trump called the move a “great honor” on Wednesday night and his campaign team praised the “support of union members” for Trump.

The former president “lies to America. He hates women. He’s a womanizer. He’s just a self-proclaimed billionaire and the only reason he wants to get into the White House is to rid himself of all the lawsuits he’s gotten himself into. He’s a disgrace to the office of the president,” Moore said, in angry language that reflected the divisions within the union over the presidential election.

O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention. The union hasn’t endorsed a Republican since 1988.

“I can’t answer his call,” he said of O’Brien’s move. “All I know is I control Michigan by 245,000 votes in Michigan, and with all the work in Michigan, it’s our job to [Trump] in Michigan.

He did not accept the polling data released by the union, which showed Trump over Harris by a 60-34 percent margin, saying it was drawn from too small a sample.

“That can be skewed in any way you want,” he said. “Here in Michigan, we polled overwhelmingly for Kamala Harris,” he said, citing the numbers 72 to 28.

Other local unions and joint councils also announced their support for Harris, including a council president in Wisconsin and a representative from Southern California and Southern Nevada.

“I’m sure Pennsylvania is going to do exactly what we did here in Michigan in the near future,” Moore predicted, speaking of the state that has become the top prize of 2024.

Sean O’Brien (C), general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, announced the union’s stunning decision not to endorse, prompting unions in swing states to issue their own endorsements

The Teamsters union is not endorsing either candidate, marking a political victory for former President Donald Trump

Vice President Harris had sought the group’s support, even though the labor leader did not speak at its convention after speaking at Trump’s.

Craig McClaine, who repairs trucks at GM’s assembly plant, said auto workers support both Trump and Harris

Tom, a cleaner at the factory, said that ‘something has to change’ in the economy

The plant is trying to “get us working as much as we can,” Zack LaFond said, a good sign for the economy. He said he’s likely to support Harris. “I’ll probably decide, like, on election day,” he said.

“Extensive polling of the union’s membership found that there was not a majority for Vice President Harris and that there was not universal support among members for President Trump,” the Teamsters said in a statement Wednesday.

The stunning move by the national union sent shockwaves into the race in a state where Harris holds a narrow lead in the polls but where Trump has a chance to dash her presidential dream with victories in party-switching “Blue Wall” states.

Harris has the support of nine of the 10 largest unions and is counting on groups like the 12.5 million-member UAW to boost turnout.

At Flint Assembly, General Motors’ longest-running plant in North America, auto workers say Trump has reached a threshold of support, a level the former president sought to raise with a visit to the area on Tuesday.

“People on our side are pretty quiet about who they’re voting for. On the Trump side, we have a lot of people here who like him, even though I don’t think he’s done as well for the middle class as he has for the wealthy,” said Craig McClaine, a truck repairman who worked at the plant for nearly 30 years.

Speaking after the 7 a.m. shift change at the plant, which operates 24 hours a day for most of the week, he recounted how Trump came to power with an Electoral College victory by winning states like Michigan even as he lost by the popular vote.

And then Biden gives him a beating [in 2020]and then he cries because the mail votes came in at night. Well, I work nights. People do things at night, you know? A vote is a vote. Well, it doesn’t matter what time it comes in,” he said.

“There are a lot of people who support him,” said Paul, a maintenance worker who has worked at the plant for 15 years. He declined to give his last name and tries “not to bring politics into his work.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s 50-50,” but Trump “absolutely has some support here, which is kind of surprising given his stance on unions and how he’s dealt with unions,” he said.

Tom, a cleaner at the factory, struggles to make ends meet while caring for a teenager with special needs. “Something has to change,” he said.

“And now that Biden was in — not that I’m really against some of the Democrats, but now that they’re in, I’m about to lose my f****** home of 18 years, and they want me to smile and say, does Bidenomics work?” he said.