Politics

This Is What Happens When Trump Attacks You on Twitter

December 8th 2016

Donald Trump has been at the center of quite a few spats on Twitter, from politicians like Sen. Elizabeth Warren to actors like Rosie O'Donnell. Most recently, the president-elect tweeted about his distaste for certain a sketch comedy and even a theater show.

However, the former reality show host's latest tweet was aimed at a man who isn't even on Twitter, Chuck Jones, a union leader who represents workers at Carrier. Trump tweeted on Wednesday evening the following: 

Why is Trump tweeting about him?

Jones, the president of the United Steelworkers 1999, said Tuesday to The Post that he believes Trump lied to workers at the air conditioning company's plant in Indiana when he claimed he would save more than 1,000 jobs that were going to Mexico.

Trump announced on Nov. 29 the Carrier deal where he claimed, with aid from Vice President-elect Mike Pence, he was able to keep jobs in the U.S. by what was later discovered due to giving the company a tax cut to keep only some of the jobs. 

Ultimately, only 800 jobs were saved, claimed Jones, who asserted that Trump was way off with his 1,100 figure. “But he got up there,” Jones said Tuesday to The Post of Trump's Dec. 1 speech in Indiana about the Carrier deal. “And, for whatever reason, lied his ass off.”

Carrier confirmed the number was 800, and the company tweeted it made a deal with Trump to "keep close to 1,000 jobs in Indy." 

Either way, Jones claimed Trump's estimate was an overshot and that he was trying to take credit for keeping jobs that weren't really going anywhere.

"Well, that’s not very nice."

Jones told The Post Wednesday that because he doesn't have Twitter he had no idea Trump was tweeting about him until a friend called him, saying, "The President-elect is smearing you on Twitter."

"My first thought was, 'Well, that’s not very nice.' Then, 'Well, I might not sleep much tonight,'" Jones told The Post. 

Trump's supporters then blew up Jones's phone (figuratively): 

The union leader's phone began ringing off the hook about half an hour after the Trump tweet on Wednesday with some calls seeming innocuous, The Washington Post reports, but one caller apparently said, "We're coming for you." Jones also claimed that he has been receiving threats. 

"I'm getting threats and everything else from some of his supporters," Jones told NBC News on Thursday. "I'm getting them all day long — now they're kicked up a notch."

Jones told Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC Wednesday, "Nothing that says they’re gonna kill me, but, you know, 'you better keep your eye on your kids. We know what car you drive.' You know, things along those lines."

 "I’ve been doing this job for 30 years, and I’ve heard everything from people who want to burn my house down or shoot me," he told MSNBC. "So I take it with a grain of salt. I don't put a lot of faith in that and I'm not concerned about it and I'm not getting anybody involved, [like] authorities. I can deal with people that make stupid statements and move on."

Jones went on to add in his interview with The Post:

"[Trump] needs to worry about getting his Cabinet filled and leave me the hell alone."

[H/T The Washington Post]

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