Rantz: Boeing machinist who booed Sen. Cantwell says union is more pro-Trump than you realize

A Boeing machinist told “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH that union membership is more pro-Donald Trump than the public realizes after he and other members booed Democrat Senator Maria Cantwell for criticizing the former president.

The striking machinists rallied at IAM 751 Union Hall in South Seattle on Tuesday. They are seeking a 40% pay increase and a pension. Boeing previously offered a 30% increase and higher matching investments in 401(k) funds, but no pension.

Several Democrat lawmakers attended and spoke to the large rally, including Cantwell. She complained that housing is expensive and that during a “key negotiation” on a bipartisan bill to help build more housing, “Donald Trump came in and squashed that deal.”

A large group of Boeing machinists responded with boos, one screaming “bulls***.” Cantwell looked shocked by the response.

Why did Boeing machinists boo Senator Maria Cantwell?

Union member Dan Zahlman was one of the members who loudly booed Cantwell.

“When you first hear that audio clip, it appears that they’re booing whatever Donald Trump had done. The exact opposite is true,” Zahlman exclusively explained to “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. “She was trying to interject some left-wing radical politics into what is a very rare labor opportunity for IAM members to be able to try to make real gains in their retirement benefits.”

Zahlman said they didn’t attend the rally to hear those radical views, saying members didn’t want to “listen to her talk about some stump-talking points and government housing that she was proposing.” He called her argument “really ridiculous” and said, “She did not have a friendly audience to spew that at.”

But Zahlman said no one should be shocked that union members are rejecting far-left ideas and embracing Trump.

“I was one of the people that was very vocally disagreeing with one of these policies (from Cantwell). I don’t think she realizes, and maybe a lot of your listeners don’t either, but there is a tremendous amount of Donald Trump support from union membership. All anybody has to do is go through a union parking lot of Boeing plants, and they’ll see a lot of Trump stickers on bumpers,” he said.

Does union membership support Donald Trump more than we realize?

Zahlman notes that local machinists “believe in God, country, family, jobs, our community.” He also said they don’t believe in “Maria Cantwell’s government solutions for our housing crisis. Nothing that I’ve seen her do has benefited this state.”

The union member said Trump and Republicans have a bigger opportunity to win over union members because of how far to the left Democrats have gone. He said their “socialist agenda is losing a lot of union support.”

“This is a tremendous opportunity for the Republican Party to make inroads, for, you know, themselves and find common ground with a group of people that they’ve probably written off quite a bit,” Zahlman said.

While the IAM national organization endorsed Kamala Harris, Zahlman said things are changing among union members. Both the Teamsters and International Association of Fire Fighters chose not to endorse in this year’s presidential election, a reflection of union membership not being as pro-Democratic Party as they’ve traditionally been known as.

More from Jason Rantz: Seattle Times columnist embarrasses himself, claims Trump would hurt Seattle economy

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow Jason Rantz on X, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

Follow @https://twitter.com/jasonrantz