Donors have raised close to half a million dollars for a factory worker who was suspended for heckling Donald Trump.
Ford worker TJ Sabula called the president a “paedophile protector” when he visited the plant in Detroit yesterday.
Trump gave Sabula the middle finger and appeared to twice say “f— you”.
Ford responded by suspending Sabula without pay.
But the father of two young children said he had “definitely no regrets whatsoever”.
“I don’t feel as though fate looks upon you often, and when it does, you better be ready to seize the opportunity,” Sabula told the Washington Post.
Ford issued a statement which did not go into specifics about the exchange.
“One of our core values is respect, and we don’t condone anyone saying anything inappropriate like that within our facilities,” the auto giant’s statement read.
“When that happens, we have a process to deal with it, but we don’t get into specific personnel matters.”
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung responded with a statement to TMZ.
“A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the president gave an appropriate and unambiguous response,” Cheung said.
Meanwhile, United Auto Workers union representative Laura Dickerson spoke in Sabula’s defence.
“He believes in freedom of speech, a principle we wholeheartedly embrace, and we stand with our membership in protecting their voice on the job,” she said.
“The UAW will ensure that our member receives the full protection of all negotiated contract language safeguarding his job and his rights as a union member.
“Workers should never be subjected to vulgar language or behaviour by anyone – including the President of the United States.”
Sabula has been supported by his representative in Congress, Rashida Tlaib.
“This worker is a national hero,” Tlaib said.
“The president is, in fact, protecting paedophiles. Don’t come to my district and expect a warm welcome. Detroit will always speak truth to power. “
Tlaib is a progressive Democratic firebrand and vociferous critic of Trump.
Sabula’s jeer directed at Trump was in reference to the president’s ties to notorious child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump long resisted releasing Department of Justice files connected to Epstein, with whom he had a long friendship.
When forced by legislation to do so, the Trump administration released only a fraction of files, and many of them were heavily redacted.
Trump called the investigation a “Democratic hoax”.
None of Epstein’s victims have implicated Trump in any criminal behaviour.