Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) rushed to former President Donald Trump ’s defense after he upset labor leaders with comments on firing striking workers.
The United Auto Workers filed federal labor charges against Trump and X owner Elon Musk on Tuesday and argued the pair's recent remarks on handling workers amounted to encouraging “the illegal firing of striking workers.”
Vance, who is Trump's running mate, said Wednesday that the former president was speaking into a situation where he believed X employees were abusing their power to “censor” information.
“He was talking about firing the employees of Twitter who use their power to censor American citizens,” Vance told a Michigan crowd Wednesday. “Those people ought to be fired. If you censor Americans from exercising their First Amendment rights, you absolutely should be fired. Donald Trump is exactly right.”
Musk laid off 80% of the X workforce, formerly known as Twitter, after he took over the company in 2022 and cut many workers in misinformation departments in his commitment to allow all speech, including hate speech and false speech, on his platform. A self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” Musk promised to make the platform a place where users were "able to speak freely within the bounds of the law."
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Trump-Vance campaign for comment regarding specific cases Vance referred to Wednesday.
Trump and Musk’s targeted comments came during a Monday interview on X. In the minutes leading up to their remarks on strikers, the two men chatted about negotiating spending cuts and saving taxpayer dollars.
“I think it’d be great to just have a government efficiency commission that takes a look at these things and just ensures that the taxpayer money, the taxpayers hard earned money, is spent in a good way. And I’d be happy to help out on such a commission,” Musk told Trump.
The former president responded, heading into the comments that earned him the anger of big labor.
“You’re the greatest cutter. I mean, I look at what you do,” Trump praised Musk. “You walk in. You want to quit? I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike, and you say that’s OK. You’re all gone.”
The comments drew ire from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which boasts 1.3 million members and is one of the most powerful labor unions in the country.
Sean O’Brien, president of the union, expressed displeasure with the pair's remarks and told Politico that “firing workers for organizing, striking, and exercising their rights as Americans is economic terrorism.”
The backlash from O’Brien indicates a setback in his relationship with the Trump campaign, who had courted his union’s support for months.
In January, Trump held a personal meeting with O’Brien.
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“Before departing the union's headquarters, the former President directly told those in attendance that the Teamsters would have a seat at the table if a potential endorsement was made for a second administration," the Teamsters magazine noted in a reflection of the meeting.
The Teamsters president spoke at the Republican National Convention in July. While he declined to endorse Trump, O’Brien’s appearance at the GOP event was a rare show of willingness on the part of unions to engage with Republicans. The vast majority of union leaders back Vice President Kamala Harris.
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