Former President Donald Trump‘s meeting with the head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is reviving concerns about President Joe Biden’s 2024 union support.
Trump dined Wednesday at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida with General President Sean O’Brien, leader of one of the largest and most influential unions in the United States. O’Brien made headlines when he and Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) nearly fought during a Senate committee hearing.
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“Had a great dinner tonight with Sean O’Brien, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Looking forward to more discussions about important issues in the near future!” Trump wrote in a Wednesday evening post to Truth Social.
Teamsters’s X account also shared an image of O’Brien and Trump, adding that the discussion was both “in-depth and productive.”
The union’s post was reshared on X by Trump senior adviser Jason Miller and the campaign’s “War Room” account.
Mullin’s office didn’t provide comment to the Washington Examiner. The Oklahoma senator is an endorser of the former president.
According to the Teamsters, Trump will meet again with the union in January to discuss ways to improve the lives of working people at a “presidential roundtable” in Washington, D.C.
“We thank the former President for taking time during this private meeting to listen to the Teamsters’ top priorities,” O’Brien said in a statement. “And we are eager to bring together the rank-and-file for an important and necessary roundtable with President Trump this month.”
Trump-aligned Republican strategist Alex Bruesewitz said he was “very pleased” about the former president’s meeting with the union. The move showcases that Trump “loves American workers,” he said. Trump is “the only Republican that can pull the working class vote — he showed it in 2016.”
Bruesewitz predicted working-class voters are going to be “difference makers” in 2024. “It’s gonna come down again to Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania,” he said.
The Rust Belt, which houses parts of each of the states mentioned, is historically known for its population of manufacturing and blue-collar workers, particularly those in unions.
“The working-class vote, including the union vote, is a big variable entering the 2024 national elections,” agreed Director of the University of Michigan’s Center for Political Studies Ken Kollman.
Biden has made an effort during his presidency and reelection campaign to cement himself as pro-worker. He’s made several trips to factories and plants, visiting with workers and touting federal money he secured for production across the country. The president has also touted his roots in Pennsylvania, home to a larger manufacturer population, and made the state a frequent stop in recent months.
Biden made history during the United Auto Workers strike when he joined workers on the picket line in Michigan. He’s also began courting workers and key union endorsements for 2024 early and has received endorsements from the United Farm Workers, the American Federation of Government Employees, and Actors’ Equity Association going into the presidential contest.
The president has further proclaimed himself to be “the most pro-union president in history” in his bid for their support.
And in 2020, when he first faced Trump, Biden received the Teamsters’s coveted endorsement. But it hasn’t made any promise to do so again in 2024.
The shift of working-class voters toward Republicans has been “a long-term development in American politics,” explained Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
“Trump bumped up the already-high Republican share of the white working-class vote in 2016 and largely held it in 2020,” Kondik said while adding the caveat that the share suffered “a little erosion that assisted Biden in winning the election.”
While Kollman agreed Trump enjoys significant working-class support, who they will swing for in 2024 is up for grabs.
“It’s a pitched battle for these votes between the two parties in presidential and congressional elections,” he said.
According to Democratic strategist Max Burns, “It’s a hard sell for Republicans to now call themselves a pro-worker party after decades spent weakening unions, refusing to raise the minimum wage, and presiding over an unprecedented offshoring of American jobs.”
He added that it’s not clear increased pro-worker sentiments from Republicans are moving the needle with the group either.
Burns recalled Trump’s speech in Michigan during the United Auto Workers strike at a nonunion shop where the former president’s campaign reportedly used “nonunion workers as stand-ins” because “so few of them wanted to hear his speech.”
For Republicans to win over these working-class votes, Burns said, “it will take more than a campaign season rebrand.”
But he added, “It would be foolish” to count Trump out, even if he is convicted of a crime, because “no one in American politics does populism as loudly and angrily as Donald Trump.”
Trump isn’t the only Republican candidate to meet with the Teamsters president. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson joined O’Brien for a roundtable meeting last month, as did independent candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, and Democratic candidates Marianne Williamson and Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN).
The union has called on all declared presidential candidates across parties to meet with the union president, secretary, and members in Washington, D.C. A Teamsters spokesperson told the Washington Examiner there are “more to come,” without revealing which candidates are on the schedule.
“Our union wants every candidate to know that there are 1.3 million Teamsters nationwide whose votes will not be taken for granted. Workers’ voices must be heard,” O’Brien said last month.
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Campaigns for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie did not reveal whether they had plans to meet with Teamsters or if they were willing to when contacted by the Washington Examiner.
A spokesperson for Vivek Ramaswamy indicated he would be open to meeting with the union.
