WATERTOWN, Wis. — Former President Donald Trump boasted Friday that Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien has accepted his invitation to speak at next month’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
It’s a big get for Trump, who is edging ahead of President Biden in polling with groups that have traditionally backed Democrats for decades, including union members.
One survey this year found Biden and Trump tied at 47% among union members in the six closest swing states Biden won in 2020, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
O’Brien is not without controversy, as one might expect of the head of a union with as colorful a history as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Post columnist Charlie Gasparino criticized O’Brien last year for failing to compromise with a major union employer, Yellow, which led to 22,000 Teamsters jobs lost.
O’Brien, Gasparino, has a friendly history with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), which might help explain his current friendship with Trump.
Sanders stepped in when O’Brien and Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) almost came to blows in November at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing.
As The Post reported at the time, Mullin read out O’Brien’s social-media posts from months before in which he suggested meeting over their disagreements, including one that declared, “Quit the tough guy act in these senate hearings. You know where to find me. Anyplace.”
Mullin, a former mixed-martial-arts fighter, said, “Sir, this is the time, this is the place. You wanna run your mouth? We could be two consenting adults. We can finish it here.”
“I’d love to do it right now,” O’Brien said, as the two taunted each other.
Mullin then stood up from his chair — and committee chairman Sanders quickly stopped the situation from getting out of hand.
Talking to Fox Business Network host Neil Cavuto days later, O’Brien declined to endorse Joe Biden for president.
Trump announced O’Brien’s acceptance on Truth Social.
His campaign’s follow-up email noted “President Trump participated in a roundtable discussion with Teamsters President O’Brien, Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman, the union’s executive board, and rank-and-file members” in January, which “O’Brien described as ‘an in-depth and productive discussion on worker issues most important to the Teamsters Union.’”
