Michigan men wearing 'autoworkers for Trump' admit they're not auto workers: report

Michigan attendees of a rally with Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) boasted they were "Autoworkers for Donald Trump," but a new report Tuesday revealed that at least two were not auto workers.

Reporters spoke to Brian Pannebecker, founder of Auto Workers for Trump who lives in Macomb County in the northeastern part of Detroit, The Detroit News said Tuesday.

"What do we have a lot of in this country underneath our feet? Oil. Gas," said Pannebecker. "We don't have the materials necessary to build electrical vehicle batteries. It's a no-brainer."

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During the Vance rally, more than a dozen people wore "auto workers for Trump" t-shirts, according to the report.

"However, two of the individuals, Carl Leonard of Chesterfield Township and Terry Flannery of Richmond told The Detroit News they were not auto workers but supporters of Trump who had been given the shirts by Pannebecker," said the report.

"He's for keeping the company strong," said Leonard about Trump's plans for the auto industry. "I think you have to have that or else there's nothing left for the unions."

It isn't the first time Trump fans have been seen wearing shirts that aren't representative of their identities. A "Black Voters for Trump" event over the summer resulted in a "sea of white people," in what a New Republic writer called a "major bust."

Trump earned just 3 percent of the vote in Detroit in 2016 and 5 percent in 2020. Trump has been to the city 11 times this year, though it wasn't always to host a big rally. He's scheduled to visit again on Thursday where he'll speak to the Detroit Economic Club.

Read the full report here.