United Auto Workers President Sean Fein criticized Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s ties to billionaire Elon Musk while campaigning for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday.
Musk endorsed Trump for the November election after he survived an assassination attempt on the former president in July. Later that month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk planned to give about $45 million each month to a new pro-Trump super political-action committee. However, after the publication of that report, both Musk and Trump said the Tesla CEO never promised any such donation.
“For many months, Donald Trump has been demonizing our state, our industry, the American autoworker, saying he’s against electric vehicles. And then something happened,” Fain said Wednesday while campaigning for Harris.
“We saw Elon Musk announce that he was going to give Donald Trump $45 million a month. And all of a sudden, what happened is, Trump changed his tune,” Fain said, calling Trump a “sellout.”
Trump has opposed any mandatory electric car provisions and criticized EV policies under Democratic President Joe Biden, but he recently said he supports electric vehicles.
“I’m for electric cars. I have to be, because Elon has endorsed me very strongly. So I have no choice,” Trump said at a weekend rally, but he also said he supports electric vehicles “to a small extent.” He added: “You want gas-powered cars, you want hybrids, you want every kind of car imaginable.”
The UAW has endorsed Harris, who recently became the Democratic presidential nominee after Biden dropped out as the nominee.