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Trump Brags About ‘Best’ Economy in Ad Featuring Steel Plant That Laid Off Hundreds

“Donald Trump likes to use workers as props,” a United Steel Workers spokesperson told VICE.

A steel plant that told employees it would lay off as many as 737 workers this year was featured in a TV advertisement for President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign that touts the “best” economy in history, according to VICE News. The clip shows the president in 2018 at U.S. Steel’s Granite City, Illinois, plant where he celebrated steel tariffs that were intended to help the industry. U.S. Steel workers at the Illinois site said that the tariffs were unhelpful in the long run, especially as the industry as a whole grapples with COVID-19. Across the steelindustry, thousands have been either laid off or furloughed. “Donald Trump likes to use workers as props, but he’s far less interested in spending time caring for their lived reality,” United Steel Workers spokeswoman Jess Kamm Broomell told VICE. “It’s not surprising that someone who deals only in photo ops would ignore the real workers, families and communities that continue to suffer on his watch.”