Pressed as to how serious he was about the AFL-CIO considering not endorsing the Democratic nominee for president for the first time since 1972, Trumka insisted “we will consider every candidate who’s running in 2020.”

Recalling the last presidential race, the union chief pointed out that “Trump got 3 percent more of our members than [Republican nominee Mitt] Romney did in 2012, but Hillary Clinton, unfortunately for her, got 10 percent less of our members than Obama did in 2012. And some didn’t vote for President or some voted third party.”

Trump gained among union members, Trumka felt, “because people were mad. They were looking for someone who was going to change the economy. They felt there were assaults on their health care and assaults on their pensions. People were looking for someone who will shake up the status quo, because the economy wasn’t working for them. Their wages were flattened and they found that candidate in Donald Trump.”