Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called out the United Auto Workers (UAW) union on Friday for endorsing President Donald Trump’s automobile tariffs.
In a CNN appearance, the lawmaker argued that UAW support for Trump’s tariffs is misguided, noting that even if some elements of Trump’s policy are good, overall, they will hurt American families.
“Look, I respect them [UAW]. But the tariffs – if they wanted to do something about auto – should have been much more pinpointed and isolated than this massive assault on American families, all to help the billionaires,” Schumer told CNN host Dana Bash.
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., rips the United Auto Workers union for praising Trump’s recent tariffs on foreign-made automobiles and parts.
UAW president Shawn Fain praised Trump for enacting major tariffs on foreign-made automobiles and parts earlier this month.
As reported by the Detroit Free Press, Fain told an audience at Wayne State University in Detroit, “Yes, I disagree with Donald Trump on virtually everything, but [tariffs are] one thing I don’t disagree on.”
Fain, who has been a fierce critic of Trump – expressing support for former Vice President Kamala Harris’s White House run during the Democratic National Convention last year – added that the Democratic Party hasn’t done the work to protect the American auto industry.
“We’ve begged Democrats, politicians for years, to do something to get these companies in line,” he said, also noting that he’s not afraid to praise Trump on the issue, even if the president is a Republican.
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United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain praised President Trump’s newly-enacted automobile tariffs. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)
“I’m not going to sit here now and say that since he’s a Republican or because he’s Donald Trump, I’m going to say, ‘screw you.’ That’s not how we do things. It’s having integrity,” Fain said.
Trump instituted 25% tariffs on outsourced cars and auto parts last week, which is primed to hit domestic brands like Chevrolet – which now produces vehicles in Mexico like the popular Equinox, and shuttered its major Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant in 2020.
However, Schumer suggested that UAW is ignoring the negative effects of Trump’s tariff policies on the whole country while focusing on the good it affords them.
“Look, there are certain tariffs that – pinpointed, careful, aimed at things that other countries are doing badly at us – makes sense. This is not that. This is across the board, 10% on everything, in addition to what other tariffs he‘s put on,” the Senate Minority Leader said.
When Bash asked about whether the auto tariffs by themselves are good, he replied, “Well, look, you have to look at it in the whole context of things. When there‘s such chaos in America, I think fewer Americans are going to buy cars – American cars or otherwise – because it‘s so chaotically done. So, I think it hurts everybody.”
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Bash also asked Schumer about how he has been responding to Democratic lawmakers questioning his leadership in recent weeks after he broke party ranks and voted for a GOP-approved continuing resolution to keep the government from shutting down.
Schumer replied by stating that he and the Democratic Party are looking ahead and taking the fight to Trump with a united front.
“We are now focused on the future, and we are focused on showing how awful this administration is,” he said. “And you‘re going to find all of us [Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.], myself, and the whole Democratic Party united on what to do, and going forward, and going after Trump day in and day out, showing the American people that Trump has betrayed them, that he’s broken his promises, and that we’re on the side of working people, and he’s on the side of billionaires.”
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