Many of the people wearing ‘Auto Workers for Trump’ shirts at a Republican rally in Detroit on Tuesday were reportedly not auto workers at all.
The event, headlined by vice presidential candidate Senator JD Vance, saw more than a dozen attendees wearing t-shirts. Some of them were stationed in a special area in the back while Vance spoke. However, six people claimed that while they supported Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, they were not actually auto workers, the Detroit News reported.
Spectators Carl Leonard and Terry Flannery said they received the shirts from Brian Pannebecker, founder of Auto Workers for Trump and a former Ford assembly line worker. . The newspaper previously described Fannebecker as Trump’s “Michigan auto worker.”
A similar trick was perpetrated in Trump’s speech to auto workers in September 2023. Some in the crowd were scuffles, holding signs like “Unionists for Trump” and “Auto Workers for Trump,” even though they were nothing like that.
Vance’s visit to Detroit is his first since becoming Trump’s running mate, and the president is expected to follow suit on Thursday.
