CHAPIN, S.C. (AP) 鈥� The president of is set to speak at next month's Republican National Convention, as angles to chip away at President support among the blue-collar workers who are expected to play a major role in the general election, particularly in crucial Midwestern swing states like Wisconsin and Michigan.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said that Sean O'Brien had 鈥渁ccepted my invitation to speak at the RNC Convention in Milwaukee."
Teamsters spokesperson Kara Deniz said Friday that O'Brien had requested a speaking slot at both major party conventions and accepted Trump's invitation for the RNC, marking the first time a Teamsters president would speak at the GOP event.
Planners for the Democratic National Convention said Friday that no final decisions about programming had yet been made for the August event.
鈥淲e are building a convention in Chicago that will tell our story to the American people, including the stories of labor and union leaders and workers that President Biden has been delivering for as the most pro-union president in modern history," party spokesperson Matt Hill told The Associated Press.
Trump has been trying to make inroads among Biden's support among organized labor heading into the general election, as he works to win over the blue-collar workers who helped fuel his 2016 victory. Union members tend to vote Democratic, with 56% of members and households backing Biden in 2020, according to .
In September, while his GOP rivals met for a debate, Trump and tried to win over autoworkers by lambasting Biden鈥檚 electric vehicles push in the midst of a strike. During his speech, Trump urged the United Auto Workers to endorse him, directly appealing to union president Shawn Fain 鈥� though he spoke from the floor of a nonunionized auto-parts plant.
Fain instead called Trump a 鈥渟cab,鈥� a derogatory term for workers who cross union picket lines and work during a strike, as he endorsed Biden. In January, Trump called on UAW members to oust Fain after .
O鈥橞rien meanwhile has met privately with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club, where the two discussed issues including right-to-work laws that allow those in unionized workplaces to opt out of paying dues and fees. After a roundtable with Teamster leaders in January, Trump called the event 鈥渁 very productive meeting,鈥� acknowledging that the union typically backs Democrats, but, referencing the possibility of an endorsement, 鈥淪tranger things have happened.鈥�
O鈥橞rien later described the roundtable conversation with Trump as 鈥減leasant鈥� and 鈥渄irect鈥� but said the union was a long way from making a decision. After in March, O'Brien said the president has been 鈥済reat鈥� for workers but stressed that 鈥渢here鈥檚 still a lot of work to be done鈥� to bolster unions.
Biden 鈥� who has long billed himself as the going so far as to turn up on a in the Detroit area during the autoworkers strike last fall 鈥� has already received significant organized labor backing with early endorsements from and others. But Trump is hoping to cut into that support as he casts himself as pro-worker and tries to exacerbate divisions between union leaders and some rank-and-file members.
The Teamsters union represents 1.3 million workers, including UPS drivers, film and television workers, freight operators, members of law enforcement and other government workers.
It backed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, although O鈥橞rien has stressed that the union is keeping an open mind on endorsements this cycle. The group generally waits until after both parties鈥� summer nominating conventions to make a formal endorsement, and it will 鈥渕ost likely鈥� do so again this year, once it polls its members, solicits rank-and-file input and reconvenes its leadership team, O鈥橞rien has said.
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Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at
Meg Kinnard, The Associated Press
