When Teamsters president Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican national convention on opening night, it seemed to hint that the Republican party – long a lapdog for corporate interests – was turning an important page and would stop being so hostile toward labor unions.

But when Donald Trump gave his hugely divisive acceptance speech three days later, he seemed to forget he was supposed to act lovey-dovey toward labor unions. The former president essentially kicked the United Auto Workers (UAW) in the teeth, and the UAW fired back by calling Trump the “mascot and lapdog” of billionaires.

During the unscripted, let-it-rip part of his speech, Trump lashed out at the UAW, seeming to suggest that the UAW was responsible for automakers building plants in Mexico. That seemed rather unhinged because the UAW wishes that it – and not profit-maximizing corporations – had the power to decide where plants are built. Even more bizarrely, Trump said the UAW “ought to be ashamed” about Chinese automakers’ plans to build plants in Mexico. (Trump offered no explanation why the UAW was responsible for any of this.)

Trump then directed his fire at the UAW’s president, Shawn Fain, saying he “should be fired immediately”, even though Fain’s stature and popularity have soared across the US because he led last fall’s victorious strike against Detroit’s automakers.

Fain struck back the next day, saying: “Last night, Donald Trump once again attacked our union on a national stage.” He said Trump “stands for everything we stand against”. Fain asked why, when General Motors closed its huge plant in Lordstown, Ohio, in 2019, “when Trump was president........

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