The AFL-CIO labor federation bashed Donald Trump’s call Wednesday for economic policies that benefit people instead of corporations, saying that the message was right but the messenger was wrong.
“Donald Trump recognized some of the challenges working people have known for decades, but the truth is he doesn’t have a clue how to fix our problems, he would only make them worse,” AFL-CIO spokesman Josh Goldstein said in a statement emailed to reporters.
The comment followed a lengthy speech Trump made Wednesday in New York City in which he tore into Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration, arguing they were presiding over a system rigged for economic elites that was leaving ordinary people behind.
“Our country lost its way when we stopped putting the American people first. We got here because we switched from a policy of Americanism — focusing on what’s good for America’s middle class — to a policy of globalism, focusing on how to make money for large corporations who can move their wealth and workers to foreign countries all to the detriment of the American worker and the American economy. We reward companies for offshoring, and we punish companies for doing business in America and keeping our workers employed,” Trump said.
The comments were not out of character for Trump. Despite being a billionaire real estate developer, he has bashed big business throughout his campaign and generally adopted a economically populist stance. On Wednesday, he went even further, explicitly reaching out to hard-left voters opposed to open trade and free markets.
“The insiders wrote the rules of the game to keep themselves in power and in the money. That’s why we’re asking [Vermont Sen.] Bernie Sanders’ voters to join our movement: So together we can fix the system for all Americans. Importantly, this includes fixing all of our many disastrous trade deals,” Trump said.
The comments put the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, in a somewhat awkward position since Trump’s rhetoric mirrors most of its own positions on international trade. The federation has endorsed Clinton‘s White House bid. While she too has mostly backed the AFL-CIO’s position on trade, as a former secretary of state for the current administration, she is at least partly responsible for the policies the labor federation opposes.
Goldstein’s statement didn’t elaborate on why the AFL-CIO thought Clinton was better than Trump, but AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has repeatedly bashed the Republican candidate as “hateful and racist” for his opposition to immigration.
No major labor unions have endorsed Trump’s bid, but labor leaders have at times conceded there was significant support for him among their rank and file members.
