This week, 45,000 International Longshoremen’s Association members went on strike, threatening to disrupt supply chains and cause short-term economic trouble, just over a month before the presidential election.
This week, a photo surfaced from nearly a year ago of that union’s president, Harold Daggett, meeting with former President Donald Trump.
“We had a wonderful, productive 90-minute meeting where I expressed to President Trump the threat of automation to American workers,” Daggett said after that meeting, USA Today reported. “President Trump promised to support the ILA in its opposition to automated terminals in the U.S. Mr. Trump also listened to my concerns about Federal ‘Right To Work’ laws, which undermines unions and their ability to represent and fight for its membership.”
The strike is an example of the changing politics of organized labor. The head of the Teamsters appeared at the Republican National Convention, but that national union did not make a presidential endorsement, although some local groups have backed Kamala Harris. The union rank-and-file has been more supportive of Trump than union leaders, for the most part.
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However, at no point in his business or political career has Trump been seen as a proponent of workers’ rights, and he even said recently, of his time in business, “I hated to give overtime.”
Donald Trump keeps a picture of Kim Jong Un on his wall. pic.twitter.com/WHvFjZf4se
— Mark Greene (@RemakingManhood) October 2, 2024
There’s something else about that picture of Trump and Daggett that has gotten attention: The two men are shown shaking hands in front of a picture of Trump with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
As president, Trump opened a diplomatic channel to North Korea, one of the world’s most isolated countries, and held a pair of summits with Kim. Trump later famously claimed that he recieved a “beautiful letter” from the North Korean leader, although the meetings did not lead to any type of diplomatic agreement on nuclearization, or any other major longstanding issues between the two countries.
Those letters, and other North Korea-related artifacts, were part of the disputed items in the federal documents case against Trump.
More recently, however, Trump appears to have confused Kim with the president of Iran, claiming that he was “trying to kill me”:
a very confused Trump confuses Kim Jong Un with the president of Iran and claims Kim Jong Un “is trying to kill me” pic.twitter.com/yWdEuxLsok
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 1, 2024
Photo courtesy of Political Tribune media library.
