A Ford worker was suspended after calling President
President Donald Trump toured Ford Motor Co.’s Rouge complex, where he had a run-in with an hourly worker.
A 40-year-old worker at a Ford plant in Detroit has been suspended following an unexpected confrontation with President Donald Trump on Tuesday. T.J. Sabula faces potential disciplinary action after shouting out “pedophile protector” as the president walked by during a visit to the River Rouge Complex in Dearborn, Michigan that assembles the F-150 pickup.
Trump responded by flashing the middle finger at the worker and shouting, “Fuck you,” twice.
The incident left company officials, including CEO Jim Farley and Chairman Bill Ford, stunned, they later acknowledged. The chairman later told Headlight.News he had hoped the visit would help underscore the importance of the auto industry to the U.S. economy and encourage Trump to shape policies around the needs of automakers like Ford.
“An appropriate response”
Reached by the Washington Post following the confrontation, Sabula said, “As far as calling him out, definitely no regrets whatsoever.” But he said he is now worried about his job and fears being “targeted for political retribution (for) embarrassing Trump in front of his friends.”
Chairman Bill Ford meets with Trump during his tour in Dearborn, Michigan.
Asked about what might happen to the worker, Chairman Ford told Headlight.News on Tuesday night that the incident is being handled by the automaker’s Human Resources department. Sources indicate the company will be discussing an appropriate means of handling Sabula with the United Auto Workers union. The labor organization has not responded yet to a request for comment.
As for the president’s response to the worker, that generated shock among some of those joining him on a tour, one Ford source said on background. The White House, however, later issued a comment claiming, “A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage,” Communications Director Steven Cheung declaring what the president did “an appropriate and unambiguous response.”
He said, she said
White House staff said the president responded “appropriately” to the Ford worker who reportedly called him a “pedophile protector.”
Exactly what was said by the Ford worker wasn’t clear, though TMZ and others said the comment didn’t match the White House claims and was largely limited to Sabula calling Trump, “a pedophile protector.”
That is in line with what the president has been widely accused of in light of his efforts to stall the release of the full Epstein files. Trump was once a close friend of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, though it remains unclear if he had knowledge of — or involvement in — the felon’s behavior.
For its part, Ford Executive Director of Communications David Tovar issued a statement saying, “We’ve seen the clip,” adding that, “One of our core values is respect and we don’t condone anyone saying anything inappropriate like that within our facilities. When that happens we have a process to deal with it but we don’t get into specific personnel matters.”
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An “unfortunate” incident
“It was unfortunate,” Ford Chairman Ford Bill Ford told Headlight.News. “I was embarrassed because, you know, we’re the hosts and … that was six seconds out of an hour tour,” he added, as “it was a very small part of the day.”
CEO Ford wanted the tour to give the president some insight into “what we’re doing,” especially with the F-150, the most popular version of the automaker’s best-selling F-Series lineup. The event wasn’t to focus on “any kind of poilitic(s),” nor was he intending to “ask” Trump for anything in particular during their time together.
That said, Ford hoped the event would lead to later meetings where he could focus on topics of interest to the automaker and, more broadly, the auto industry. “We live in a very fluid world,” the executive and Ford family heir said, and that’s particularly the case with an administration that has laid out its own policies on a variety of topics, from tariffs to EV incentives.
“That whole (EV) landscape has changed dramatically,” he added, cautioning that while policies may change overnight, “It’s often difficult for politicians to understand that our lead times are longer than political lead times. We can’t pivot on a dime.”
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