During a briefing in the White House Rose Garden on Friday, President Donald Trump acknowledged honking truckers in the background.
Trump acknowledges trucking industry protesters who are protesting by honking their horns during his event, but says “they’re protesting in favor of President Trump … that’s the sign of love.” pic.twitter.com/9vSIIBjewa
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 15, 2020
“Those are truckers that are with us all the way. They’re protesting in favor of President Trump, as opposed to against, and that’s a sign of love, not the sign of your typical protest, so I want to thank our great truckers. They like me, and I like them. We’re working on something together,” Trump said.
In fact, the truckers were protesting low freight rates.
From the Washington Post: Just two weeks ago, President Trump had personally extended his gratitude to truckers, welcoming representatives of the industry to the White House and calling truckers “the foot soldiers” in the war against the novel coronavirus. But now, “the American truck driver needs help, and we need it now,” said [Rick] Santiago, a 21-year veteran of the industryfrom New Jersey. “This is our distress call to our commander in chief to address the problems we are facing. He has called us heroes — his heroes need his help now.” … The trucking industry did not get a targeted financial support package from Congress during the last round of stimulus negotiations, and the organization representing independent truckers such as Santiago says they’ve had only limited success with the troubled Paycheck Protection Program run by the Small Business Administration.
