Trump and Musk charged by UAW with 'intimidating and threatening' auto workers after X interview
Former President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have been charged with federal labor violations by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union after an X interview in which Trump allegedly suggested firing striking workers.
The conversation between the two billionaires was almost two hours long with over a million people watching it, and part of it was a discussion of labor practices.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
At the beginning of the X interview, Trump said there was a massive cyberattack against the servers which caused delays in its livestreaming.
"You're all gone"
The pair threw around the idea of Musk as a member of a "government efficiency commission" tasked with cutting the size of government.
I mean, I look at what you do," Trump said to Musk. "You walk in, you say, 'You want to quit?' They go on strike. I won't mention the name of the company, but they go on strike, and you say, 'That's okay. You're all gone. You're all gone. So every one of you is gone.'"
It is illegal to fire striking workers and to even threaten to fire them, under the National Labor Relations Act.
After Trump called Musk "the greatest cutter," Musk pivoted away from the conversation without confirming or denying Trump's comments.
"Disgusting" and "predictable"
The UAW is trying to organize workers at Tesla, and it has endorsed Democrat nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race, so there's no love lost between them and either Musk or Trump.
"Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly," UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement. "It's disgusting, illegal and totally predictable from these two clowns."
Trump campaign senior advisor Brian Hughes called the charges a "shameless political stunt" designed to erode "Trump's overwhelming support among American workers."
Talking is illegal?
Since when is it illegal to have a conversation about a hypothetical future action?
Neither Musk nor Trump was making a policy proposal or any actual threat toward any actual union.
If having a casual conversation about something that is illegal has become illegal, then freedom of speech is dead in the U.S. and an awful lot of Democrats will also need to go to jail for talking about other illegal things (like taking away people's guns, for example).
