Biden’s Michigan trip to join workers on strike has nothing to do with Trump, White House says

President Joe Biden’s decision to join the picket line with UAW workers has nothing to do with Donald Trump, the White House said Monday.

“Absolutely not. This is a decision to visit the picket line and it was based off his own desire. This is what the president wanted to do, to stand with auto workers,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a press briefing when asked if Biden’s decision to go to Michigan was influenced by Trump’s own plans to visit.

Biden announced last week that he will travel to Michigan on Tuesday to join the picket line of auto workers on strike nationwide, just as some Democrats began to question his response to the strike.

On late Friday and on Monday morning, Trump posted to his social media platform Truth Social that Biden was only visiting Michigan because Trump had already announced his intention to visit on Wednesday — the same day as the second Republican primary debate.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made the rounds on several Sunday shows this week to defend Biden’s decision to go to Michigan.

“President Biden is doing what he has always done, which is to stand with American workers,” Buttigieg said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He is proud of being the most pro-union, pro-worker president, not only compared to the Trump administration, with its anti-union policies, but really compared to any modern president.”