Ford Autoworker Who Trump Cussed Out Still Has His Job

The Ford worker who called Donald Trump a “pedophile protector” while the president toured a Michigan auto factory last month still has his job and no discipline on his record, an official with the United Auto Workers union said Monday.

The incident became national news because Trump responded to the worker, TJ Sabula, by giving him the middle finger and mouthing the words “fuck you,” according to video at the time. Ford suspended Sabula over his heckling.

UAW Vice President Laura Dickerson said in a speech Monday at the union’s conference in Washington, D.C., that the UAW would continue to support Sabula.

“TJ has got his job. And, more importantly, TJ has no discipline on his record,” Dickerson said, prompting “UAW” chants.

She added, “As UAW members, we speak truth to power. We don’t just protect rights ― we exercise them.”

Although she said Sabula is still employed, Dickerson did not address the status of his suspension. According to a union source, Ford had suspended Sabula with pay.

Ford did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. Dickerson’s remarks were first reported by the , the disgraced financier and sex offender who took his own life in prison in 2019. Trump had palled around with Epstein in New York City and once told a reporter that Epstein was a “terrific guy” who liked women “on the younger side.”

After he was suspended, Sabula told The Washington Post he had “no regrets” over his run-in with the president.

“I don’t feel as though fate looks upon you often, and when it does, you better be ready to seize the opportunity,” the factory worker said. “And today I think I did that.”

The UAW endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris over Trump in the 2024 election, and its president, Shawn Fain, became one of Trump’s loudest critics in organized labor. The labor leader frequently called Trump a “scab” and a “con man” who put his wealthy friends before working-class people.

Dickerson said Trump’s response to Sabula showed “what the president really thinks about working people.”

“It took a lot of courage for that worker … to speak his mind to the most powerful person in the world,” she said, “when the easy thing to do would have been to say nothing at all.”