Many of the people who wore “Auto Workers for Trump” shirts at a Republican rally in Detroit on Tuesday were reportedly not autoworkers at all.
At the event, headlined by vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance , more than a dozen attendees could be seen wearing the T-shirts. Some of them were stationed in a featured spot behind Vance as he spoke. However, six fessed up that while they did support Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump , they were not actually autoworkers, The Detroit News reported .
Spectators Carl Leonard and Terry Flannery said they were given the shirts by Brian Pannebecker, the founder of Auto Workers for Trump and a former Ford Motor Co. assembly line worker, the News reported. The newspaper has previously described Pannebecker as Trump’s “ go-to Michigan auto worker .”
Attendees wearing “Auto Workers for Trump” shirts at a Detroit rally on Oct. 8. Some reportedly admitted they were not actually autoworkers.
A similar deception was perpetrated during Trump’s speech to autoworkers in September 2023. Some in the crowd were shills carrying signs like “Union Members for Trump” and “Auto Workers for Trump” when they were nothing of the sort.