Ford worker TJ Sabula suspended for heckling Trump, says he has ‘no regrets’

DETROIT, MICHIGAN: An auto worker who lobbed a profanity-laced insult at President Donald Trump and paid the price hours later says he has "no regrets whatsoever."

TJ Sabula, a 40-year-old Ford employee, was suspended from his job pending an internal investigation after shouting “P*******e protector!” at Trump during the President’s visit to the automaker’s Michigan facility on Tuesday, January 13.

The outburst came as Trump was touring the plant, where Ford’s bestselling F-150 trucks are assembled, ahead of a speech to the Detroit Economic Club. 

Cellphone footage from inside the factory shows Trump stopping mid-tour after the shouts rang out. The president paused, glared downward toward the source of the heckling, and appeared to mouth the words “f**k you” in the direction of Sabula’s voice. Seconds later, Trump raised his middle finger as stunned onlookers watched in silence.

Clips of the exchange spread on social media within hours. By the end of the day, Sabula’s protest had reportedly cost him his job, at least temporarily.

Sabula has 'no regrets whatsoever'

Following the incident, Sabula was reportedly suspended pending an investigation. However, he made it clear he had zero second thoughts about what he said.

“As far as calling him out, definitely no regrets whatsoever,” Sabula told the Washington Post.

While Sabula stood firmly by his words, he admitted he wasn’t exactly sleeping easy about what might come next. The suspended worker said he believes the fallout goes beyond company policy and claimed he had been “targeted for political retribution” for “embarrassing Trump in front of his friends.”

“I don’t feel as though fate looks upon you often, and when it does, you better be ready to seize the opportunity,” he said. “And today I think I did that.”

Sabula identified himself as a political independent and told the newspaper that while he had never voted for Trump, he had supported other Republican candidates in the past.

Ford has not publicly detailed the specifics of its investigation or how long Sabula’s suspension may last.

However, the White House was quick to defend the President’s response to the heckling.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement addressing the incident, “A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the President gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.”

Trump says lack of workers is a 'good thing'

Trump was also interviewed by 'CBS Evening News' anchor Tony Dokoupil at the Ford factory, where the President raised eyebrows by suggesting that Ford’s struggle to hire enough workers was actually a positive sign.

“The CEO of Ford said not long ago he’s got 5,000 open mechanic jobs,” Dokoupil began. “He can’t find people willing and able–”

Trump interjected, “I know, but that’s a good thing, Tony. That means it’s vibrant. You could also have things where you have so many people, and they can’t get jobs. It’s true, we are doing so well, it’s hard. Now, what’s going to happen is people are being trained rapidly, and you’re gonna have a thing called robots, and robots are gonna be a big factor. I predict that robots are gonna be a big factor in the future, and it’s gonna help out.”

“But you have a situation now where our economy is doing so well that it’s not that easy to get people. We’re training people, they’re training people, companies are training people, and they’re doing well. You know, that’s a positive question you asked me. I don’t think you asked it in that way, but we are doing so well right now that we’re training people to take those jobs,” Trump added. 

That said, while Trump’s middle finger may have raised eyebrows in Washington, it wasn’t without precedent in American politics.

Vice President Nelson Rockefeller famously flipped off protesters in 1976.