The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, for the first time since 1996, is not endorsing the Democratic presidential nominee after a poll showed nearly 60% of its members support former President Trump.
"They're going to, I guess, remain neutral. But that was sort of a big event. Nobody ever expected anything like that to happen," Trump said on "Gutfeld!" Wednesday in his first in-studio appearance on the hit late-night show.
"They actually took a poll of the Teamsters, of the people, the workers, the people that really do the job. And they're good. I've had many of them work for me with the concrete stuff, you know, the frames, they put up the frames, they drive the trucks, so they just announced they're not going to support the Democrats."
"We had a tremendous advantage with the people," said Trump. "It's been many, many years since they supported a Republican or did this."
DNC APPARENTLY SNUBS TEAMSTERS PRESIDENT FOLLOWING HIS HISTORIC RNC SPEECH
A New York City union official and former Democrat joined "Fox & Friends" Thursday to explain why he cannot support VP Harris.
"For everything that's gone on in the last four years. An open border, inflation, gas prices, oil, mortgage rates. I mean, I can go on and on. The immigrants just getting into neighborhoods, like the neighborhood I grew up in… These are where people worked hard all their life to buy a house in a nice neighborhood, and now it's destroyed by illegal immigrants," said Bob Bartels, business manager of Steamfitters Local Union 638.
In a release titled "Union Workers Support President Donald Trump," the campaign highlighted the former president's more than 25-point margin over the vice president in both online and phone surveys of Teamsters.
Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt argued in a statement that "the hardworking members of the Teamsters have been loud and clear — they want President Trump back in the White House. These hardworking men and women are the backbone of America and President Trump will strongly stand up for them when he’s back in the White House."
The powerful union has over 1 million members in the U.S. and is deeply connected to working-class voters in the key Midwestern general election battlegrounds and in other swing states across the country. Until now, it had endorsed the Democratic candidate for president in every election since 1980.
Asked if the move by the Teamsters will affect the election, Trump said, "I think it will. Yeah, I think so. The Teamsters carry a lot of weight."
In explaining the reasoning for declining to endorse a 2024 presidential candidate Wednesday, the union said in a statement, "The union’s extensive member polling showed no majority support for Vice President Harris and no universal support among the membership for President Trump."
Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien said, "Neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before Big Business."
The Harris campaign, in a statement to Fox News after the union opted to remain neutral, pointed to endorsements from "many Teamsters locals and rank and file."
"While Donald Trump says striking workers should be fired, Vice President Harris has literally walked the picket line and stood strong with organized labor for her entire career," Harris campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said.
"The vice president’s strong union record is why Teamsters locals across the country have already endorsed her — alongside the overwhelming majority of organized labor. As the vice president told the Teamsters on Monday, when she is elected president, she will look out for the Teamsters rank and file no matter what because they always have been and always will be the people she fights for."
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
