It’s Labor Day, and what better way to begin a celebration of the working American than watching the president of the United States attack the representative for workers in this country? Trump proved once again on Monday that he simply cannot handle criticism no matter how slight, and the American worker is once again overlooked while Trump demands his ego be stroked.
Richard Trumpka is the head of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, and his entire job is understanding and advocating for policies that benefit the working class. If Trumpka does his job poorly, workers suffer, and Trumpka loses his job. Unlike the president of the U.S., Trumpka can’t insult and bully his way past his failures, he can’t convince people he’s doing a great job because he hates the same people they do. He has to actually prove that he’s able to produce results.
During an interview with NPR, Trumpka praised the president for trying to revamp NAFTA, the trade deal that hurt American workers. He agreed that some of Trump’s policies have been good for workers.
When their wages rise, all of us begin to win. The current version of Nafta has harmed small farmers, ranchers, businesses and working people all across North America, and the only clear winners so far have been global corporations. This is trying to reverse that
However, there were parts of Trump’s proposed changes to NAFTA that Trumpka saw as flawed. Most importantly, Trumpka is opposed to leaving Canada out of any trade deal considering the impact it will have on workers there and in the U.S.
Renegotiating #NAFTA is a mammoth undertaking. Meaningful renegotiation will upset the powerful global corporations that have made huge profits off the backs of North America’s working people. pic.twitter.com/sOYLeMPFOY
— Richard Trumka (@RichardTrumka) August 31, 2018
Of course, any criticism of Trump only comes from two sources: obstructionist Democrats and the “deep state.” So Trumpka must be one or the other, otherwise he’s just making sense on a policy he knows well and is telling Trump he’s wrong.
Trump cannot handle that.
Twitter was critical of Trump’s Labor Day rant. See some of their comments below:
Featured image via Flickr by Gage Skidmore under a Creative Commons license
