A GoFundMe campaign for a Detroit autoworker who called Donald Trump a “pedophile protector” was suspended from the Ford plant where he worked on Tuesday. But it looks like he’s going to be alright financially. A GoFundMe campaign set up for the Michigan man has already raised over $400,000 and counting.

TJ Sabula, a 40-year-old line worker, told the Washington Post he was suspended from his job for shouting “pedophile protector” at Trump during the president’s visit to the Ford F-150 plant. Trump responded, either by audibly saying or just mouthing the words, “fuck you” twice. The president then extended his middle finger as he kept walking.

Two different videos posted to social media captured the exchange, including the first published by TMZ. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung defended Trump’s actions, telling the Washington Post: “A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the President gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.”

  • Baggie@lemmy.zip
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    6 hours ago

    Man, imagine what the GoFundMe would look like if that orange bastard suffered actual harm or something.

  • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    This is a good precedent. You yell the truth at trump and you’ll get half a million dollars.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    19 hours ago

    I know it’s probably not the reason why he did it but this guy just bought himself job security for life. Just say that you’re the guy who got told by trump yomfuck himself, and booom, job!

    Same for getting sex

    Same for free drinks at a bar

    Trump is so big that this guy is wet for life.

    He should start an activist group with the goodwill he has!

    Either way, he’s awesome

  • ⓝⓞ🅞🅝🅔@lemmy.ca
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    21 hours ago

    There is absolutely no circumstance in which I would ever wish to meet the current president of the United States… except for this one…

    To be directly told “Fuck you” by Donald is an incredible badge of honor.

    And it was done twice with a bonus middle finger too?!

    🥰

  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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    24 hours ago

    That middle finger thing was real? Yeah, our president is a 12 year old. Can you imagine any other world leader doing this? Even north korea wouldn’t do this.

    • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      North Korea would have him and his family and his family’s extended family’s extended family disappeared.

      • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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        23 hours ago

        But he wouldn’t have flipped him off in the first place. Can you picture any other world leader doing this? Maybe the drug thug from the Philippines awhile back. That’s all I can think of.

        • 87Six@lemmy.zip
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          23 hours ago

          I can see Basescu doing that to a heckler then laughing with the heckler

          Look him up, the Romanian ex-president. Dude had the whole weird fun uncle vibe, and as is custom to say in romania: “He stole but he also did things”

          • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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            23 hours ago

            I could also imagine Silvio Berlusconi doing this, and he was another deeply corrupt avuncular type.

            • 87Six@lemmy.zip
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              22 hours ago

              Eh I wouldn’t say Basescu was deeply corrupt. I mean, not compared to our current politicians and others from his own time.

              Our last former prime minister was far, FAR worse than Basescu, along with the entire current PSD party, which are also corrupt assholes with no morals.

            • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
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              22 hours ago

              I think Berlusconi would have thought it was beneath him. He wasn’t the same kind of petty that Trump is.

      • Ferrous@lemmy.ml
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        22 hours ago

        What kind of new age cope is this?

        Trump does something shitty

        well, at least that’s not as bad as this strawman about North Korea that I just made up.

        Just letting your unabashed orientalism known to the world.

        On top of this, the sheer amount of outrage over this act which had no material effect is baffling. People are so obsessed with optics, decorum, and civility that a middle finger is condemned nearly as hard as withholding healthcare from millions of Americans, or, you know, fascism rocketing towards us at Mach 10.

    • lechekaflan@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      Yeah.

      The other bastard who did such a thing was Rodrigo Roa Duterte, currently in the Hague, under ICJ scrutiny.

    • pipe01@programming.dev
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      22 hours ago

      To be fair north Korea wouldn’t do this because they’d send him to the coal mines instead lol

      • CobblerScholar@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        Correct but even the worst authoritarian wouldn’t mock their citizens so openly. Most dictators are smart enough to know that all it takes is one bullet to kill them and this country literally has more guns than people

            • SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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              12 hours ago

              I want the Rainbow Panthers to be passing legislation, someday. Such as making it law that ICE is abolished, wealth limits, making immigration a streamlined process, returning honors to minorities that were ousted by the Trump Regime’s military, and more.

              Oh, and making the heads of Trump and the other oligarchs into a Smithsonian Exhibit, as a warning to future despots.

    • sickday@fedia.io
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      23 hours ago

      I can only think of one other [previous] world leader who’d do this and the similarities between Trump and him are many

  • cattywampas@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    I also heard that UAW is standing by his first amendment rights. So a nice payday, a fuck you to Trump, and gets to keep his job. What a happy ending, thanks unions!

  • Sausager@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    GoFundMe Campaign for Autoworker Who Got the ^tiniest Middle Finger From Trump Hits $400,000

    Ftfy

  • N0t_5ure@lemmy.world
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    24 hours ago

    It isn’t an appropriate response for the President of the United States. It’s the response of an insecure narcissist. A real President would ignore the guy, because responding gives the heckler power. A real President would view an unruly person screaming as insignificant and to be pitied.

  • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    I dunno what he will do with that half-a-million bucks, but I hope he keeps it for himself. I wouldn’t blame him at all. Also, there’s a small chance he’ll need it for legal council. You never know which species of cockroach that sort of money will bring out from under the stove.