Steelworkers from the Pittsburgh area who attended a Saturday rally for former President Donald Trump credited his steel tariffs for “saving” their jobs during a Monday morning Fox News appearance.
Trump enacted tariffs on steel and aluminum in 2018 during his presidency. Brian Pavlack, who spoke at the event in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, told “Fox and Friends” co-hosts Brian Kilmeade, Lawrence Jones and Ainsley Earhardt that the tariffs “worked.”
“I was glad I got my members up there and they got to see him,” Pavlack said. “It’s like, all about my members to me, you know, meet Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump kind of saved all of our jobs with those tariffs.”
Trump has made a push to capture the votes of union workers in his bid for the White House, with the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), which endorsed President Joe Biden in the 2020 campaign, announcing Oct. 3 that it would not be endorsing a presidential candidate in the 2024 election, slightly over two weeks after the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said they would not endorse either Trump or Harris.
“I’m curious. Typically, union workers in your industry, we know them to endorse Democrats. Why Donald Trump this go around?” Lawrence Jones asked Glenn Thomas.
“Historically, we’ve all been Democrats,” Thomas explained. “A couple of us up here are third-generation steelworkers, and uh, we had a trade case that our ex-international president Tom Conway was fighting the Chinese for illegal dumping, and when President Trump stepped in and he imposed those tariffs on the Chinese, I firmly believe he saved the steel industry, not only in our country but in Mon Valley, where many of us have lived for close to 30 years.”
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Another steel worker, Andy Macey, cited the shutdown of mills in the 1980s as his reason to back Trump.
“I’m a third-generation steelworker. I have been through those layoffs. It’s not fun. I’ve seen three mills shut down in the valley in the 80s. We have three mills left in the valley. I don’t want to see those shut down. And he made a firm commitment when I asked him with a handshake, ‘Mr. President, after the election, will you do what can you to keep our Mon Valley viable in the steel industry?’ He gripped my hand and confirmed to me through that handshake that he says ‘I will do that.’”
“It was one of the first things he did when he got into the presidency is to put those tariffs on,” Macey added later. “They worked.”
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.