White House defends Trump over middle-finger gesture at heckler
The White House defended US President Donald Trump after he made an offensive gesture towards a fraudster at a Ford plant in Detroit on Tuesday.
Footage of the incident Published by TMZ It appears to show Trump responding to a man yelling at him from afar.
The White House said: “A lunatic was screaming wild profanities in a full-on rage, and the President responded appropriately and clearly.”
The United Auto Workers union told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that the fraudster had been sacked by Ford. Within 24 hours of the incident, two separate GoFundMe pages had raised nearly $700,000 (£521,000) for him from more than 27,000 donors.
A Ford spokesperson told CBS: “One of our core values is respect, and we would not tolerate anyone saying something inappropriate like this at our facilities.
“When that happens, we have a process to deal with it, but we don’t get into specific personnel matters.”
The scammer called Trump his “pedophile protector,” according to captions provided by TMZ.
In the clip showing Trump from a distance, the president is seen responding to the person who cut him, allegedly swearing and making a middle finger gesture.
Speaking to The Washington Post, a man named TJ Sabula identified himself as the shouting man. He said he “doesn’t regret” what he did.
Sabula reportedly said his remarks were in reference to Trump’s handling of the Epstein files.
Trump has faced pressure for more transparency about what has been revealed in federal investigations into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump signed a law forcing the Department of Justice (DoJ) to release all files it has on Epstein by December 19, although only a portion of the files have been made public so far.
Trump was once friends with Epstein before their falling out; Trump says this happened years before Epstein’s first arrest. Trump has not been charged with any crimes in connection with Epstein.
The United Auto Workers (UAW), the union representing Sabula, defended his actions, saying: “He believes in free speech, a principle we wholeheartedly embrace, and we stand with our members in protecting their voices on the job.”
Trump was in Detroit on Tuesday to give a speech to the Detroit Economic Club.
The president’s public use of profanity has made headlines in the past; for example, when discussing relations between Iran and Israel last June.
His predecessor, Joe Biden, also caused controversy when he used profanity in a conversation with a worker during a visit to a factory in Detroit while on the 2020 campaign trail before being elected president.
