Stock markets slid and business executives frowned when President Donald Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on auto imports, but he could take solace that the nation’s most prominent union president applauded the move. Shawn Fain, the usually combative president of the United Auto Workers, heaped praise on the tariffs, saying they would help “end the free-trade disaster that has devastated working class communities for decades.” Fain added, “The Trump administration has made history with today’s actions.”
Fain’s words got plenty of attention—he had been an outspoken supporter of Kamala Harris during the 2024 campaign, and many Americans saw his praise of the auto tariffs as evidence that labor unions were enthusiastic about Trump.
But now, five weeks later, it’s abundantly clear that most unions are angry as hell about Trump 2.0. “We’ve been facing a barrage of attacks from the administration,” said Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s main union federation, in an interview. “They’re slashing jobs. They’re ripping up union contracts. They’re cutting services. Trump’s delivered on nothing that he promised. We would say his scorecard is a fail.”
Trump’s anti-union moves have come faster and been vaster than labor leaders had anticipated. He and Elon Musk have fired tens of thousands of federal workers while ignoring job protections in their union contracts. Trump dismissed the chair of the National Labor Relations Board well before her term ended, leaving the board without a quorum to function. He issued an executive order to destroy collective bargaining rights for 1 million federal employees. “That’s the biggest assault against labor in our history,” Shuler said. [snip]
Construction workers have long been viewed as more pro-Trump than most union members, but that didn’t stop Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trade Unions, from angrily calling on Trump to bring home Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a wrongly deported immigrant who was a member of the sheet metal workers’ union. “We demand” that he “be returned to us and his family now,” McGarvey said. “Bring him home.”
Jimmy Williams, president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, explained why many construction unions are souring on Trump: As a result of Trump’s cancellation of subsidies and various projects, he said some $100 billion in planned construction has been scrapped, from electric battery factories to offshore windmills—eliminating a large number of construction jobs. “It’s been chaos. It’s been economic chaos,” Williams said. “Then there are the immigration raids, and Trump’s sheer lack of wanting to follow the rules and the law. It’s scary. We are more conservative than most unions, but what you’re seeing right now from the Trump administration is not conservative. You’re seeing fascism.”... (our emphasis)
Eyes wide open now? Good. Keep them that way. Speaking of following the rules and the law...
President Donald Trump argued in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that fulfilling his ambitious campaign promise to rapidly carry out mass deportations may take precedence over giving immigrants the right to due process under the Constitution, as required by courts.
A central part of Trump’s agenda has been implementing the “largest deportation operation” in U.S. history, as he vowed during the 2024 campaign. In service of that goal, his administration has pressed the courts to allow the immediate removal of immigrants it accuses of being members of a Venezuelan gang, without giving them a chance to plead their case before a judge.
In an interview last month with “Meet the Press,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “Yes, of course,” when asked whether every person in the United States is entitled to due process.
Trump, however, isn’t so sure.
“I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know,” Trump replied when asked by “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker whether he agreed with Rubio. His comments came during a wide-ranging interview at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, which aired Sunday.
The Constitution’s Fifth Amendment says “no person” shall be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”; it does not say that person must be a U.S. citizen, and the Supreme Court has long recognized that noncitizens have certain basic rights. Trump has also said that while “we always have to obey the laws,” he would like to see some “homegrown criminals” sent to El Salvador as well, a proposal that was widely panned by legal experts.
When Welker tried to point out what the Fifth Amendment said, Trump suggested that such a process would slow him down too much. [snip]
“But even given those numbers that you’re talking about, don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?” Welker asked.
“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said.”
The Supreme Court has already made it clear to the Trump administration in three different recent decisions that it has to allow basic due process rights for immigrants based on the long-standing understanding of the laws... (our emphasis)
Of course he doesn't believe he needs to uphold the Constitution, especially the 5th Amendment!! He's told us "I run the country and the world." All his life he's been a firm practitioner of the adage that laws were made to be broken, so how's this Constitution that he's never read supposed to stop him, now that he "thinks" he has immunity for "official acts" handed to him by the John Roberts Republican Supreme Court? Speaking of the courts, the Constitution, and that annoying due process, we have another ironic tidbit right here...
President Donald Trump says he is directing his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on a hard-to-reach California island off San Francisco that has been closed for more than 60 years.
In a post on his Truth Social site Sunday evening, Trump wrote that, “For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering. When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
“That is why, today," he said, “I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.”
Trump’s directive to rebuild and reopen the long-shuttered penitentiary was the latest salvo in his effort to overhaul how and where federal prisoners and immigration detainees are locked up. But such a move would likely be an expensive and challenging proposition. The prison was closed in 1963 due to crumbling infrastructure and the high costs of repairing and supplying the island facility, because everything from fuel to food had to be brought by boat.
Bringing the facility up to modern-day standards would require massive investments at a time when the Bureau of Prisons has been shuttering prisons for similar infrastructure issues. [snip]
Alcatraz Island is now a major tourist site that is operate by the National Park Service and is a designated National Historic Landmark.
Trump, returning to the White House on Sunday night after a weekend in Florida, said he’d come up with the idea because of frustrations with “radicalized judges” who have insisted those being deported receive due process. Alcatraz, he said, has long been a “symbol of law and order. You know, it’s got quite a history.”... (our emphasis)
So, he "came up with the idea" ("Brilliant, sir!") because of his frustrations with Constitutionally protected due process. As we pointed out the other day, the Malignant Fascist should be the biggest proponent of due process, since it kept him out of jail for most of his adult life, but most egregiously the last four. (More commentary on this latest bizarre "idea" here.)
Happy Cinco de Mayo to all who celebrate (and celebrate responsibly)!
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