Trump Gets Labor Day Off to a Feisty Start

By attacking the head of the AFL CIO
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 3, 2018 7:56 AM CDT
Trump Gets Labor Day Off to a Feisty Start
In this April 4, 2017 file photo, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka listens at the National Press Club in Washington. Trump tweeted Monday that Trumka “represented his union poorly on television this weekend.” He added: “it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly. A Dem!”   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Trump got a somewhat non-traditional start to a president's typical Labor Day: An attack on the president of the nation's largest labor union federation. He tweeted: "Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, represented his union poorly on television this weekend. Some of the things he said were so againt (sic) the working men and women of our country, and the success of the U.S. itself, that it is easy to see why unions are doing so poorly. A Dem!" It seems that Trumka displeased the president by telling Fox News on Sunday that Canada ought to be included in NAFTA negotiations, notes the Washington Post, and that "the things that (Trump has) done to hurt workers outpace what he's done to help workers."

Trump then touted the economy, tweeting, "Happy Labor Day! Our country is doing better than ever before with unemployment setting record lows." The AP fact-checks that claim, noting that the unemployment rate of 3.9% is not at the best ever—but it is near the lowest in 18 years.

(More President Trump stories.)

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