United States – The head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters will address the Republican National Convention (RNC) next month in Milwaukee, the former president stated on his Truth Social portal on Friday, as reported by Reuters.
Trump’s Announcement
Trump claimed that the newly elected Teamsters president, Sean O’Brien, “has agreed to address the RNC Convention in Milwaukee.”
The major labor union, with a membership of 1.3 million people, has not declared its stand on the looming presidential polls. It supported Democratic President Joe Biden in the previous year, 2020.
Union’s Stance on Conventions
Kara Deniz, a representative of the union, stated that according to the information that was left with her by O’Brien before he went missing, he wanted to address the RNC and the Democratic National Convention to be held in Chicago in August.
“The Teamsters are excited that former President Trump has extended this invitation, and we will be equally excited if and when the DNC chooses to do the same,” she said.
As it has been seen, it would be quite rare in today’s very divided political environment for a person to address both conventions.
O’Brien said that she had both Biden and Trump. She said that the union would do a lot of polling and that they would probably make their endorsement, most probably after the Republican and Democratic conventions.
Trump and Biden are both striving for the support of blue-collar workers or the rank and file of organized labor, which will prove vital in the Nov. 5 election, particularly in the industrialized states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
Battling for Blue-Collar Support
Biden was already endorsed by the AFL-CIO and the United Auto Workers union but he has repeatedly described himself as the most labor-friendly president ever and showed up at a picket line at Ford during the autoworkers strike last autumn.
Trump has been attempting to chip away at Biden’s labour support ahead of the general election as he remains obsessed with securing the working class vote which got him elected in the first place, as reported by Reuters.
The Teamsters Union is a fairly large union and actively represents interests of truck drivers, dock workers, airline pilots, governmental employees and many others.