Donald Trump is causing panic among Democrats who think he “scooped” President Joe Biden by announcing he's flying to Michigan to speak with striking auto workers.
The trip is being seen as a “plainly cynical ploy to gain political advantage from the current United Auto Workers strike,” Politico reported.
And making a move to win support from a bloc of voters that’s traditionally Democrat has the party worried.
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?
“He actually has people who know what they’re doing,” a union adviser told Politico. “He boxed Biden in. It was kinda genius.”
“We should not underestimate Donald Trump. He’s a survivor and this is going to be a very hard-fought campaign,” said California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) who was meeting with United Auto Workers members this week.
“We need a message to working-class Americans. Right now, they’re still hurting in terms of gas prices, food prices, housing costs, utilities costs, and they don’t feel like their wages are going up fast enough, and they feel like the very wealthy are getting too much of the rewards. That’s what I heard on the picket lines.”
The White House is quietly concerned that Trump is actually making inroads among union voters, Politico wrote. And Biden’s administration is been seen as dithering on how to address the strike.
“Biden’s team has privately weighed whether to dispatch a top lieutenant to the picket line to stand alongside the UAW workers, according to two people familiar with those discussions,” Politico wrote. “The exact details of who might go or where they could travel are unclear.”
READ MORE: Tennessee MAGA candidate cops to 1990s arrest for 'promoting prostitution'
The White House has expressed support for workers, though Biden is considered by some union members to have underestimated the striker’s discontent. His administration’s support for electric vehicles has also earned him ire.
Trump announced Tuesday that he’d skip next week’s GOP debate and speak with strikers instead.
Detroit's Big Three car makers have been on strike since last week, fighting for better pay and improved labor agreements.
“Trump scooped us. Now if we announce we’re going, it looks like we’re just going because of Trump,” a Democratic strategist told Politico.
“We waited too long. That’s the challenge.”
