WASHINGTON—On April 29, four weeks after introducing tariffs of at least 10 percent on nearly every country, President Donald Trump stood before a crowd of blue-collar workers in Michigan to mark his 100th day in office.
“After decades of politicians who destroyed Detroit to build up Beijing,” Trump said, “you finally have a champion for workers in the White House.”
Since his first term, Trump has broken with Republican Party orthodoxy, particularly on free trade and globalization. By championing steep tariffs and protectionist policies—cornerstones of his “America First” agenda—he has attracted a surprising new crowd to the party: union workers.
Republican National Committee member Shawn Steel said the GOP has become the party of the working class.
“What Trump has done, which is really intriguing to me, is he has taught Country Club, middle-class Republicans to work and align themselves with the working class,” he told The Epoch Times.
“That hasn’t happened in 120 years.”
Some have said that Trump has reshaped the Grand Old Party in ways that were once unimaginable.
He has combined traditional Republican planks—such as tax cuts, deregulation, and boosting energy production—with policies often associated with the political left, including tariffs, TrumpRx, and government ownership in private companies.
Trump, however, avoids boxing his policies into a single ideology. He refers to them as “common sense” solutions. And a growing number of party members have rallied behind them.
From President Ronald Reagan through to Trump, the GOP has consistently supported free trade, which has greatly benefited the United States, former Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore told The Epoch Times.
He estimated that the U.S. economy could grow at least half a percentage point faster without current tariffs.
Moore also said Trump’s tariffs on China are understandable given Beijing’s behavior. Still, he said the GOP should find a middle ground.
“If you want to isolate China, you have to have everybody else aboard, and so you don’t want to antagonize countries like Canada unnecessarily,” Moore said.
Steel said Republicans still hope the tariffs are temporary.
“The problem is we haven’t had free trade in decades,” Steel said, citing countries such as China that distort the world trade order with heavy subsidies and slave labor.
Trump’s trade agenda has faced legal challenges from businesses and states. On Nov. 5, the Supreme Court held arguments over the legality of Trump’s global tariffs.
Trump said on Nov. 6 that it would be “catastrophic” for the country if the high court were to rule against his tariffs. He said if he loses in court, he will develop an alternative plan to carry out his trade agenda.
Trump’s policies have found strong support among blue-collar workers who once formed the backbone of the Democratic Party.
Exit polls from the 2024 election indicate that working-class voters (defined as those without a college degree) supported Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris by a margin of 56 percent to 42 percent.
Among white working-class voters, Trump led Harris by a margin of 66 percent to 32 percent. He also increased his share of working-class black and Latino voters compared with 2020.
Isaiah Goddard, a United Auto Workers member who works at Ford’s Rawsonville components plant in Michigan, said Trump’s tariffs are breathing life into the U.S. auto industry and that more auto manufacturing jobs are coming back to the United States.
Goddard, a third-generation autoworker, said he strongly supports Trump but does not feel loyalty to the Republican Party. He said he would “absolutely” vote for a Democrat in the future if that candidate were to advocate similar policies.
And this is a big issue for some Republicans who believe that if the party neglects working-class voters in the future, it could undo all the gains made in the Trump era.
Speaking at a dinner hosted by The American Spectator in May, Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said that Trump’s strong connection with blue-collar workers has been a gift for the GOP.
“Working class voters sent Trump back to the White House in 2024 with even more support than in 2016,” he said.
According to Banks, 79 percent of mechanics, 60 percent of small business owners, and 59 percent of custodians donated to Trump over then-presidential candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
Whether Trump’s policies and pro-worker vision will outlast his presidency remains an open question.
“Every single time we elect a president, we become the political arm of the President of the United States—whether you like it or not,” Steel said.
“Now that Trump is our president, it is, in fact, Trump’s party.”
—Emel Akan; Stacy Robinson
BOOKMARKS
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) was hospitalized after a minor cardiac event and a fall near his home on Thursday. “‘If you thought my face looked bad before, wait until you see it now!” Fetterman joked in a statement following the event.
Democratic political candidate Jordan Wood has dropped a challenge to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), but will now seek to replace retiring Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) in the House of Representatives. Collins will still need to fend off challenges from Gov. Janet Mills and oyster farmer Graham Platner.
Donald Trump signed an executive order providing education and job opportunities for kids in foster care on Nov. 13. “We are going to protect American children in foster care, and we’re going to ensure that they will never, ever be forgotten,” Trump said before signing the order.
Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) will still face assault charges, after a federal judge refused to dismiss her case on Thursday. McIver was charged after she allegedly assaulted ICE agents earlier this year outside an immigration detention center in New Jersey.
The Department of Justice has filed a legal challenge against California’s redistricting plan, alleging it is using race “as a proxy to advance political interests.” Attorney General Pam Bondi called the plan “a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process” in a statement.
—Stacy Robinson
