Donald Trump to skip second GOP debate to join UAW members in Detroit this week
(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to have his busiest stretch of campaigning this week since launching his bid for a second White House term last fall. But one stop will be notably absent from the GOP front-runner's schedule: the second Republican primary debate.
While his GOP rivals begin the week preparing for Wednesday's debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, Trump is taking a dual approach of shoring up support in early-nominating states and wooing swing-state voters who will be vital to his general election prospects if he wins the GOP nod.
The former president is expected to kick off the week with a rally Monday afternoon in the early-voting state of South Carolina. He plans to follow that with a visit to Michigan on Wednesday to give a speech before union workers.
In addition to Trump visiting UAW members, Biden also announced he will be visiting Michigan this week. Biden will be in Michigan on Tuesday, Sept. 26.
Tuesday, I'll go to Michigan to join the picket line and stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create," said Biden in a social media post. "It's time for a win-win agreement that keeps American auto manufacturing thriving with well-paid UAW jobs."
Biden's announcement came after Trump's, which the former president criticized, saying that he only decided to visit autoworkers because the former president was going to.
"Crooked Joe Biden had no intention of going to visit the United Autoworkers, until I announced that I would be heading to Michigan to be with them," Trump said in a social media post. "If the UAW 'leadership' doesn't ENDORSE me, and if I don't win the Election, the Autoworkers are 'toast'..."
He's slated to speak to an audience that will include current and former union members amid the ongoing United Auto Workers strike.
The strike began after Ford, General Motors and Stellantis failed to reach an agreement with the UAW before contracts expired on Thursday, Sept. 14.
UAW President Shawn Fain released an update on Friday, saying the strike would expand to 38 General Motors and Stellantis facilities across 20 states. The expansion did not include any Ford facilities, because Fain said they had made significant progress in negotiations with Ford.
Trump is scheduled to be in California on Friday – two days after the debate – to speak at the state GOP's fall convention in Anaheim. And on Sunday, Trump will travel to Ottumwa, Iowa, to hold a commit-to-caucus event and deliver policy remarks largely focused on agriculture, according to a source familiar with his plans.
His rally Monday will take place at Sportsman Boats in Summerville in the greater Charleston area. Trump enjoys wide leads in the GOP primary polls both nationally and in South Carolina, which is home to two of his primary opponents – former Gov. Nikki Haley and US Sen. Tim Scott. Haley and Scott are among several candidates currently vying for second place in GOP polling and a chance to emerge as the main Trump alternative for primary voters.
Trump has publicly questioned the point of participating in primary debates when he holds a commanding lead over the rest of the GOP field in national polls. He skipped the first debate in August and instead sat for a pre-taped interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that was streamed on social media during the debate.
His trip to Michigan also signals the former president has an eye on the general election and a potential rematch with President Joe Biden – who on Tuesday is making his own trip to Michigan, where he will walk the picket line with UAW workers. Trump has lambasted Biden's trip, asserting that the president is only going because Trump had announced his own visit. Trump narrowly won Michigan in 2016 but then lost the battleground state in 2020 to Biden. Ahead of his trip, Trump's campaign released a radio ad in Detroit and Toledo, Ohio, bashing Biden over his support for transitioning the auto industry to electric vehicles and casting Trump as supportive of autoworkers.
Trump then travels to the West Coast on Friday to join several other 2024 rivals in speaking at a convention hosted by the California Republican Party in Anaheim. Scott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are scheduled to take the stage the same day as Trump, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has a speaking slot the following day.
After being indicted four times, Trump is now attempting to navigate a presidential campaign while he is a defendant in multiple criminal trials. The former president faces a sweeping Georgia indictment that accuses him of being the head of a "criminal enterprise" to overturn the 2020 election in that state; a New York indictment over allegations that he falsified business records to disguise hush money payments related to the 2016 campaign; a federal indictment related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left office; and a separate federal indictment over his efforts to try to overturn the 2020 election results. He has pleaded not guilty to all 91 charges and has denied any wrongdoing.