Just one week before Donald Trump’s inauguration, with mass protests planned in cities around the country, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka paid a visit to the Trump Tower penthouse in New York City.
Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Trumka staunchly supported Democrat Hillary Clinton and criticized Trump intensely, calling him racist, sexist and anti-worker. In a March 2016 speech, Trumka called Trump a “bigot,” pointed out that Trump thinks U.S. wages are too high, and denounced Trump’s insults to women and immigrants.
But after Trump “won” the election — even though he lost the popular vote count by almost 3 million votes — Trumka joined a long list of liberal politicians and public figures who quieted their outraged criticism of Trump in order to negotiate with him.
Foremost on the list was Clinton herself, who told supporters on the day after the election, “We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.”
Trumka’s meeting with Trump on January 13 was hidden from the public, including union members. The AFL-CIO chief — head of the main U.S. union federation, with close to 12 million members — spent an hour and a half at Trump Tower, but refused to share any information about the meeting, telling reporters that they talked about “a lot of issues.”
Afterward, Trumka tweeted that he had had “a very honest and productive conversation with @realDonaldTrump.”
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So let’s get this straight: One week before activists who oppose Trump’s bigotry were preparing to take the streets for anti-inauguration protests and the massive Women’s Marches against Trump, the official head of the U.S. union movement decided to hold a friendly closed-door meeting with Trump at the same headquarters where thousands of New Yorkers protested the day after the election.
Rather than help organize protests to oppose Trump, Trumka decided to meet with the president-elect instead. Considering all that Trumka knew — and said — about Trump before the election, this doesn’t seem to make a…