Commentator Jonah Goldberg had the line of the night:
Here is some context.
Donald Trump gave the keynote address on night one of the GOP convention to Sean O’Brien, the president of the Teamsters. O’Brien was not there to endorse Trump or the GOP, but he wanted to make clear that working men and women were not beholden to any political party.
Watch:
The Teamsters donated $45,000 to the GOP convention fund. In December 2023, the Teamsters donated $135,000 to the Democratic National Committee and an additional $15,000 donation in March 2024.
Not everyone was happy that O”Brien spoke at the convention last night.
O’Brien railed against corporate America. Many free-market, big business Republicans were probably not very happy about this. This explains Goldberg’s tweet.
There are many in the GOP, such as former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, who have built their political careers on fighting against unions. Nikki Haley called herself a “union buster.” Ron DeSantis went after unions in Florida. Vivek Ramaswamy wanted to eliminate unions for teachers and federal workers. Chris Christie has fought a long battle against teachers unions in New Jersey. Mike Scott wants to “break the backs of the teachers’ unions” and criticized the recent United Autoworkers strike.
It is worth noting that Elon Musk just promised $180 million dollars to a Trump super PAC. In other words, Musk just made a major contribution to a presidential candidate who just allowed the head of the Teamsters to speak at his convention.
O’Brien did not condemn Trump for his remarks about immigration and race. Many in the Teamster’s Black caucus were not happy about this. The vice-president of at large for the Teamsters called O’Brien’s speech “unconscionable.” He said, before the speech, that “members should demand that president O’Brien not participate in the Republican convention, nor allow himself to disgrace this union by creating the false impression that Teamsters members support Trump and all he stands for.”
As I noted last night, O’Brien even made nice with Oklahoma senator Mark Wayne Mullin. I think the steel cage match just got postponed. 🙂