Donald Trump Gets Something to Celebrate Before Going to Court

Donald Trump received some good news on the way to his Manhattan Criminal Court trial this week, when a union official announced the majority of his members were voting Trump.

Bob Bartels, the manager of the Steamfitters Local 638 Union, appeared on Fox News' Fox & Friends on Thursday to speak about the upcoming 2024 presidential election and suggested that many of his members plan to side with the former president, over President Joe Biden.

"My members right now, I put out a poll of my union. President Trump is leading Joe Biden three-to-one on my presidential poll out of my 9,000 members," Bartels said. "We are very tired of the situation with groceries, inflation, gas prices, illegal immigration, crime. We're living it every day in New York City."

The context:

On Thursday morning, Trump met with New York City construction workers before his ongoing hush money criminal trial.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has indicted Trump over payments made to former adult film star Stormy Daniels. Bragg alleges the former president "fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election." Trump denies the charges and has repeatedly called for a gag order against him to be removed.

What we know:

While speaking to reporters after meeting with construction workers and union members, Trump said that he'd like to "make a play for New Yorkers."

"They said, I just heard, there was a very good poll that came out. Normally, a Democrat will win New York. Biden is the worst president in history, we have some very bad people here, but we have the greatest people and they're right behind me. They all want us to run, and we're going to run very hard in New York," Trump said.

In the 2020 election, Biden beat Trump in New York by over 1 million votes. According to Ballotopedia, Biden received 60.9 percent of votes there, compared to 37.7 percent who voted for Trump.

According to the Gotham Gazette, Biden won Queens, where the Steamfitters Local 638 Union is based, by almost 40 percent in 2020, receiving 69 percent of votes, compared to Trump's 30 percent.

The union also previously endorsed former Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin in 2020.

Views:

Videos posted on X, formerly Twitter, showed many constructions workers chanting for Trump on Thursday morning.

"Union Workers chanting 'We Want Trump' and 'USA,'" conservative commentator Benny Johnson wrote in a post.

Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt also shared a similar video saying "Union workers chant "USA" as President Trump visits their construction site."

Trump's union news came the day after the North American Building Trade Union, which represents 3 million members, announced it was endorsing Biden in the 2024 presidential race.

"North America's Building Trades Unions can honestly say no elected official has shown our members and their families more respect than President Joe Biden. Through his policies and his personnel, President Biden has demonstrated his laser-like focus on not only rebuilding our nation's infrastructure and manufacturing sector but rebuilding the American middle class itself," NABTU President Sean McGarvey said.

What's next:

Trump's trial in New York City is expected to continue over the next several weeks and the former president is required to attend each of the hearings.

Biden is also expected to travel to Syracuse, New York on Thursday to speak about the economy and investments his administration has made under the CHIPS and Science Act.

Newsweek reached out to a spokesperson for Trump and Biden's campaign via email for comment.