Trump Gives Ford Worker The Finger, Appears To Mouth ‘F*** You’

When President Trump showed up at the Ford F-150 factory in Michigan on Tuesday, the folks at Ford knew it would make the news, but they were also probably hoping his visit would mostly be covered by stuffy business outlets and the local news. Unfortunately for Bill Ford and Jim Farley, that didn’t happen. Instead, the Washington Post reports Trump made a big ole splash when he flipped off a Ford worker and appeared to mouth, “Fu*k you,” at the guy. Way to keep it classy, Mr. President.

Granted, Trump didn’t pick some random guy out of the crowd. The heckler reportedly called him a “pedophile protector,” which certainly isn’t the nicest thing anyone has ever said to a president. Then again, if Trump didn’t want people to accuse him of protecting pedophiles, he could have just released the Epstein files instead of dragging his feet until lawmakers voted to force his hand. Then again, considering Epstein was reportedly his best friend, you can kind of understand why Trump wouldn’t want more information getting out about all that. 

Meanwhile, the White House didn’t even bother trying to deny that Trump did it, with White House communications director Steven Cheung telling the Washington Post, “A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the President gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.” That’s about what you’d expect from the Trump White House, but that doesn’t make it any better. Sounds like whatever the heckler said really got under Trump’s skin for some reason.

The Post was also able to confirm the identity of the heckler:

TJ Sabula, a 40-year-old United Auto Workers Local 600 line worker at the factory, told The Post that he was the one who shouted at Trump. He said he has been suspended from work pending an investigation.

“As far as calling him out, definitely no regrets whatsoever,” Sabula said, though he added that he is concerned about the future of his job and believes he has been “targeted for political retribution” for “embarrassing Trump in front of his friends.”

The Post says it contacted Ford for a statement but did not receive a response. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday morning that heckler TJ Sabula has been suspended from work at the plant. Those gigs are well-paying and not easy to come by, so Sabula really made a sacrifice exercising his free speech in the workplace. 

Sabula also told the Post that he considers himself a political independent who hasn’t voted for Trump but occasionally supports other Republicans. He also claimed he was only about 60 feet away from Trump and made sure the pedophile protector could hear him “very, very, very clearly.” As Sabula put it, “I don’t feel as though fate looks upon you often, and when it does, you better be ready to seize the opportunity. And today I think I did that.”

The good news is, it doesn’t look like Sabula will suffer too much financially, even if Ford ends up firing him. Two separate GoFundMe drives have already been started in his name, with more than $101,000 already raised by the first and $261,000 raised by the second. That’ll buy him more than a few drinks and should also help pay for some good lawyers if Trump decides to retaliate and send one of his goon squads after him.