EXCLUSIVE: Steelworkers Union Spent Millions Against Trump Agenda, Showing Gap With Membership

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL— Even while polling has showed increased union member support for President Donald Trump, United Steelworkers spent millions funding liberal political candidates and left-leaning causes that have little to do with organized labor.

The organization has also funded LGBTQ and racial equality groups, while heavily backing Democrat political candidates and political action committees, according to a report by the American Accountability Foundation, a watchdog group.

Last August, United Steelworkers criticized raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a social media post that said, “we look to a powerful legacy of resistance.” The following month, the union held a two-day workshop titled “Anti-Immigrant Policies” that it said would “help members facing anti-immigrant policies & workplace challenges.” This included “loss of work authorization,” “ICE detentions,” and “how to plan for & respond to ICE raids.”

This came roughly a year after Reuters reported in September 2024 that at a United Steelworkers conference about six weeks before the 2024 election, leadership did not promote the officially endorsed candidacy of Kamala Harris. The story also noted that at past gatherings of the union, dozens of members wore red “MAGA” baseball caps.

The American Accountability Foundation report, first shared with the Daily Signal, is titled, “MAGA Membership & Woke Leadership – United Steelworkers.”

“The United Steelworkers (USW) is the largest steel union in North America, representing over 850,000 members and retirees across the continent,” the report says.

United Steelworkers has contributed $33,000 to Pride at Work, an LGBTQ group within the larger AFL-CIO, which has helped sponsor “No Kings Rallies” in March of this year and has “decried MAGA Republicans,” according to the report, citing social media posts.

“USW had made no secret of their allegiance, working against the Trump-Vance agenda, constantly critiquing the administration for any action, endorsing Democratic politicians, and instructing members on how to ‘plan for ICE raids,’” the report adds. “These actions cast aside the members of the union who support the Trump administration, instead choosing to use the union’s funding and media to push their own agenda.”

The union spent more than $40 million on politics from 2017-2024, according to the report. United Steelworkers gave more than $800,000 to the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-union-aligned think tank, and more than $300,000 to the Blue Green Alliance, a labor-aligned environmental group.

“The United Steelworkers Political Action Fund directs the overwhelming majority of its political resources to Democratic candidates and Democratic Party infrastructure,” the report says. “The committee sent $1,162,893.12 to Democratic Party committees compared to $0.00 to Republican committees.”

“The federal candidate breakdown is just as lopsided. The fund contributed $440,000.00 to Democratic federal candidates and only $35,000.00 to Republican candidates,” the report continues. “That means 92.63% of federal candidate dollars flowed to Democrats and just 7.37% to Republicans.”

The political fund sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democrat-aligned and liberal groups, including $385,000 to former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s campaign; another $345,000 to the Democratic Governors Association; $340,000 to the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a union-aligned racial and economic justice organization, and $250,000 went to the House Majority PAC, a Democratic group.

In 2024, the USW PAC contributed $590,622, or 97.49%, to Democrats and $5,000, or 0.82%, to Republicans, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks money in politics.

Trump’s 2024 performance among overall union members was the strongest of any Republican since Ronald Reagan carried 49 states in 1984, according to U.S. Polling Data, a website that tracks various polls.

Trump, who shed some Republican orthodoxy on trade and other economic issues, made an appeal to working-class voters in 2016, when he got the support of 37% of union members and 43% of the vote from union households, according to data from the Roper Center.

Also, weeks before the 2024 election, a poll found that 59.6% of Teamsters union members wanted the union to endorse Trump, compared with 34% responding in favor of Harris.

The United Steelworkers did not respond to inquiries for this story by publication time.