Trump Fumes Over Firefighters’ Union Endorsement of Biden

He took out his anger with dozens of retweets, including one of an account called “Fuck Donald Trump.”

Douglas Christian/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

President Donald Trump’s simmering resentment after the country’s largest firefighters’ union backed Joe Biden’s presidential bid was on full display Wednesday morning, with the president furiously retweeting dozens of posts claiming to be authored by firefighters at odds with the International Association of Fire Fighters’ endorsement this week.

Trump kicked off the marathon of retweets by first complaining that the “dues sucking” IAFF was indebted to him.

The president’s frenzied social media activity came two days after the IAFF declared that Biden was the “strongest candidate” and had a “worker-focused platform.” Hours after the group’s announcement on Monday, Biden spoke at a Teamster union hall in Pittsburgh for his first speech as a 2020 candidate, telling the crowd that he chose the city for its “hardworking, middle-class Americans.” As Mother Jones reported from the scene, IAFF President Harold Schaitberger was among the speakers to introduce Biden at the event.

“He speaks to and connects with those workers who didn’t believe the last Democratic nominee heard about them, cared about them, and felt that their historic votes for the Democratic candidate were maybe just being taken for granted,” Schaitberger told the crowd.

Much to his critics’ delight, Trump’s ongoing anger over the IAFF’s endorsement appears to have had a blinding effect. His Wednesday morning retweeting spree swept up an account called “Fuck Donald Trump.”

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate