For three seconds on the floor of a Ford Motor Co. plant in Dearborn, a solitary autoworker did what the political establishment has largely failed to do for three months: remind the country exactly who its president is.
As Michigan Advance reported, when Donald Trump walked through the facility Tuesday, a worker in a now-viral video shouted that Trump was a “pedophile protector,” a reference to the president’s long-running ties to Jeffrey Epstein and the still-unresolved question of why the full Epstein files have not been released.
Trump’s response wasn’t denial, reflection or restraint. He flipped off that Ford employee, since identified as 40-year-old TJ Sabula, a line worker and member of UAW Local 600.
That moment — crude, unpresidential and unmistakable — cut through weeks of both-sides noise and strategic silence. In one exchange, the country saw the same man it has seen for nearly a decade: thin-skinned, angry at accountability, and hostile to anyone who challenges him, especially working people.
And then Sabula was suspended.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), whose district includes many Ford workers, confirmed what Ford itself would not say publicly: Sabula was suspended immediately after the incident.
Tlaib didn’t mince words about what that decision said.
She expressed shock that Ford would punish a worker for stating something “factually true,” while saying nothing about a president who responded by flipping off one of their own employees.
“He’s the president of the United States and he did that,” Tlaib told me in a phone interview Tuesday night. “But they say nothing, and they punish him for speaking up … for survivors.”
That’s the part that should linger. This wasn’t just a heckle. Sabula’s comment went to the heart of a question that refuses to go away: why Trump’s Department of Justice has failed to follow the law and fully release the Epstein files, and why so many powerful people seem determined to let the issue fade.
Tlaib made that connection explicit, noting that the Epstein matter has slipped from headlines even as survivors and advocates continue asking when they’ll get justice.
There certainly has been a lot to be distracted by, whether it’s the killing of an unarmed mother of three in Minneapolis, a military incursion into Venezuela to depose its leader or threats to invade a staunch NATO ally’s territory.
But Sabula wasn’t distracted.
That’s what makes this moment so damning. For months, Republicans have tiptoed around Epstein, issuing vague statements about “process” and “transparency,” while refusing to say plainly what millions of Americans already believe: that Trump’s DOJ is obstructing accountability, and that the failure to release the files protects powerful men, not survivors.
Instead, it took an autoworker, with no press staff, pollsters or protective bubble, to say it out loud, at personal cost.
In doing so, Sabula exposed more than Trump’s ingrained cruelty. He exposed Ford’s priorities.
As Tlaib pointed out, Ford planned the visit, brought Trump onto the factory floor and failed to give workers a heads-up. They placed employees in a volatile situation with a deeply divisive president and then acted shocked when someone exercised their First Amendment rights.
Ford could have hosted Trump at headquarters. They could have limited his access. They could have coordinated with the UAW, which Tlaib noted has historically been involved in presidential visits but notably was not part of this one.
Instead, they made a choice, and then punished the worker who bore the consequences.
That choice sends a message. As Tlaib put it, it tells workers that standing up for sexual assault survivors is a firable offense, while accommodating power is corporate policy. It suggests a company more concerned with pleasing a president than protecting the people who build its cars.
It also reveals how normalized Trump’s behavior has become. A president flipping off a factory worker should be a national scandal. Instead, the fallout landed almost entirely on the person without power.
This is why those three seconds mattered.
They cut through the noise and reminded us that Trump, as well as his administration, still treats accountability as a personal insult. But it also means that institutions — from the DOJ to Fortune 500 companies — still bend to protect him.
Tlaib hopes the public will protect Sabula, noting the real risks he now faces for speaking out. She’s right.
We shouldn’t let a factory worker carry alone what should be a collective demand: release the Epstein files, follow the law, and stop punishing truth-tellers to appease an angry president.
For three seconds, America was reminded who Donald Trump is.
And it took a union member and working stiff to do it.
- Jon King is the Michigan Advance’s editor-in-chief, having previously served as the outlet's senior reporter, covering education, elections and LGBTQ+ issues. King has been a journalist for more than 35 years and is the Past President of the Michigan Associated Press Media Editors Association who has been recognized for excellence numerous times, most recently in 2022 with the Best Investigative Story by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Cleary University. Jon and his family live in Howell.
- Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
