Donald Trump’s trip to striking factory pips Democrats

The trip comes amid deepending Democrat concerns Joe Biden has been outflanked amid continued unhappiness at his handling of the economy.

Donald Trump speaks to guests during a rally in Maquoketa, Iowa. Picture: Getty Images

Donald Trump will address striking car workers in the battleground state of Michigan next week, deepening concern among Democrats that President Biden has been outflanked by his Republican rival in his battle to win back working-class voters.

Trump will travel to Detroit to meet United Auto Workers (UAW) members who walked out at the weekend after negotiations about a pay increase and working hours broke down. The strike is the first by the UAW against all the “big three” American carmakers at once.

A prolonged standoff could threaten Biden’s hopes of re-election amid continued unhappiness among voters at his handling of the economy. Biden has touted himself as “the most pro-union president in American history” and has backed the UAW, urging bosses at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, the owner of Chrysler, to give more to their workers.

Trump’s speech in Detroit is seen by Democrats as a cynical ploy to exploit the strike and shore up blue-collar votes for his campaign to take back the White House next year.

With a commanding lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Trump is already focusing on the election.

Some Democrats have voiced frustration that Biden has been outmanoeuvred by his rival. “Trump scooped us,” one Democratic strategist told Politico. “Now if we announce we’re going, it looks like we’re just going because of Trump. We waited too long.”

One union adviser said that by beating Biden to Detroit, the former president’s team appeared to be running a more sophisticated, agile campaign than in 2016 or 2020. “He actually has people who know what they’re doing,” the adviser told Politico. “He boxed Biden in. It was kinda genius.”

Working-class voters were once a bedrock of the Democratic coalition but that support has been eroded in recent elections. White working-class voters were key to Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Deepening the alarm among Democrats, recent polls suggest that support for Biden among working-class black and Hispanic voters is also falling. Inflation and high prices are continuing to weigh on the president’s approval rating.

A New York Times/Siena poll last month found that Biden’s lead over Trump among non-white voters without a degree was just 16 points – 49 per cent to 33 per cent. In 2020, Biden beat Trump in the same bloc by 48 points.

Biden insists that the legislation passed during his first two years in office, which promises massive investment in technology, green energy and infrastructure, will benefit blue-collar workers. Democrats worry that those benefits have not been felt by ordinary Americans, however, and are still outweighed by the rising cost of living.

“We need a message to working-class Americans,” the Democratic congressman Ro Khanna told Politico after meeting striking car workers on Monday. “Right now, they’re still hurting in terms of gas prices, food prices, housing costs, utilities costs, and they don’t feel like their wages are going up fast enough . . . That’s what I heard on the picket lines.”

The Times