UAW files federal charges against Musk and Trump

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump spoke on X on Monday night. Despite technical difficulties, the two had a lengthy discussion on a variety of topics. Trump’s series of comments have now put the two of them in hot water with the UAW.

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All of this seemed to come down to one small part of their conversation. “I mean, I look at what you’re doing,” Trump told Musk. “You walk in and you say, ‘Do you want to quit?’ They’re on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they’re on strike, and you say, ‘That’s fine, y’all are leaving. You’re all leaving. So, every single one of you is leaving.'”

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Trump appeared to be referring to Musk’s sabotage of Twitter after he bought it in 2022. Before the acquisition was completed, employees of the social media company drafted an open letter to Musk and other executives. Musk still fired the vast majority of employees there.

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It’s unclear what exactly the UAW believes it can charge Musk with, as he didn’t appear to confirm anything illegal happened in the discussion. Notably, Trump did laugh when he made those comments. Musk has long opposed unionizing at Tesla, and the UAW has publicly vowed to work to recruit significant members there anyway.

“When we say Donald Trump is a scab, that’s what we mean. When we say Trump is against everything our union stands for, that’s what we mean,” said UAW President Sean Fein.

“Donald Trump always sides against workers standing up for themselves, and he always sides with billionaires like Elon Musk, who donates $45 million a month to Super PACs to help him get elected. Both Trump and Musk want the working class to sit down and shut up, and they openly laugh at that. It’s disgusting, illegal, and completely predictable behavior from these two clowns.”

We have reached out to the UAW for additional comment on their strategy going forward and what they hope to accomplish. Musk responded to the allegations by suggesting that Fein could end up being jailed like the two previous UAW presidents.