title:  BUSTED: Steel Unions FURIOUS At Trump For Destroying American Jobs
text: If Trump wants to win the rust belt, he needs to practice what he preaches. After promising multiple times that under his Administration that jobs and business would be brought back to the steelworkers of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Minnesota, a new report detailed that Trump wasn t doing his part to make that happen (shocker, right?). Turns out Trump buys his steel   and aluminum   for his buildings from China, not the struggling rust belt states and communities.Let me guess: that makes him  smart. The Newsweek expose put a major dent in Trump s ability to coalesce blue collar, unionized steelworkers who typically vote Democratic but have been courted heavily by the Republican nominee.President of USW Local 1219, which represents workers at U.S. Steel s Edgar Thomson Works, Jim Johnston, slammed the nominee for failing to follow his own advice and promises at a press conference with other steelworkers and officials, saying:What he says really appeals to our members. But what he does is the total opposite.Braddock, Pennsylvania, which boomed in the 1920s as the epicenter of steel production but lost close to 90 percent of its population after the industry collapsed in the 1970s and 1980s, also felt the sting of Trump s double-talk. Mayor John Fetterman, a Democrat, laid into Trump s lies, telling the local press:Donald Trump pretends to be in the corner of steelworkers when the facts   as always with Donald Trump   show otherwise.If Donald Trump loses the support of the steelworkers, he can kiss Pennsylvania (and possibly Ohio) goodbye. With Hillary Clinton rising in the polls and making ground in the state, Trump will have to claw his way back after a series of devastating revelations about the candidate have been made public.Pennsylvania s next door neighbor, Ohio, is also not so forgiving, even among Republicans. Lourenco Goncalves, president and CEO of Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources, said:It s just another example of who he is. He works for Donald Trump, not the common good. I m a Republican, but I just can t support a guy like Donald Trump.Just across the Great Lakes, in Minnesota, criticism has been sharper. USW President Leo W. Gerard went full anti-Trump in a statement to Duluth News Tribune:The USW, though not surprised by Trump s actions, is furious over his efforts to undercut key American manufacturing jobs in the construction of his buildings he so often brags about. The investigation from Newsweek released Monday is a shocking expose on Trump s plan to not only buy his steel and aluminum from the Chinese, but to use shell companies and corporate black holes to try and hide his greed even as he was planning to run for president.John Rebrovich, assistant to the director of USW District 11 in Minnesota, also told Duluth:We ve got 12,000 steelworkers at steel mills out of work and another 10,000 at aluminium mills and he s buying Chinese steel through shell companies. That s not making America great again. That s killing our jobs.Ouch. Trump s greatest chance on winning these traditionally Democratic states may have just completely turned against him, and for good reason. They have been ravaged enough. They don t need a bombastic billionaire promising them all these wonderful things when he doesn t even do his part to alleviate their suffering. Why didn t Trump contract these workers? Chances are he would have stiffed them, but even the extension of doing business would have meant the world to these hardworking Americans. But Trump, as usual, picks China to do his bidding.Featured image via Ralp Freso/Getty images