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The autoworker who was suspended for calling President Donald Trump a “pedophile protector” during the president’s visit to a Ford plant in Michigan on Tuesday, a remark that prompted a middle finger from the commander-in-chief, said he has “no regrets.”
TJ Sabula, 40, shouted “pedophile protector!” at Trump as he was touring the Ford River Rouge complex in Dearborn.
The president responded by mouthing the words “f— you” twice and giving the middle finger, according to video of the incident obtained by TMZ, which reported that the exchange followed a person shouting an insult at the president off camera.
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Sabula said he was later suspended from his job pending an internal investigation into the incident, but that he has “no regrets whatsoever.”
“As far as calling him out, definitely no regrets whatsoever,” Sabula told The Washington Post. He estimated that he was standing roughly 60 feet away from Trump and said the president could hear him “very, very, very clearly.”
He said while he is concerned about the future of his job, he believes he was “targeted for political retribution” for “embarrassing Trump in front of his friends.”
“I don’t feel as though fate looks upon you often, and when it does, you better be ready to seize the opportunity,” he said. “And today I think I did that.”
Sabula described himself as a political independent who has never voted for Trump but has supported other Republican candidates.
The White House, responding to the exchange, argued that Trump gave an “appropriate” response to the autoworker.
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“A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the President gave an appropriate and unambiguous response,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement.
This comes as Trump’s Justice Department continues to face scrutiny from Republicans and Democrats for its delay in the release of documents related to the investigations into deceased sex predator Jeffrey Epstein. A bipartisan law required the full release of the documents by Dec. 19, but it has been estimated that only about 1% of the files have been made public.
