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Trump, who is seeking to win over more union members this year, took a victory lap after the O’Brien announcement.
“The Teamsters carry a lot of weight,” the ex-president told reporters last week. “The Democrats cannot believe it. Look, it was always automatic that Democrats get the Teamsters, and they said, ‘We won’t endorse the Democrats this year,’ so that was an honor for me.”
The tug of war for union support reflects the high stakes for both candidates, particularly in the Upper Midwest, where organized labor has long been a robust political force.
Trump in 2016 won the presidency in part because of his appeal with a critical bloc of union households in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — all swing states that are core parts of the Democratic “blue wall.”
The former president won all three states that year, but Biden flipped them back into the blue column in 2020.
This year, both Trump and Harris are aiming to win these battleground states, with the ex-president touting his support for protectionist trade measures and the Democratic nominee stressing that her staunch support for labor would mirror that of Biden should she win the White House.