Hey y’all, welcome back to Unfit to Print.
Today I am feeding you some original reporting on the Ford plant worker who heckled President Trump. Enjoy.
“POLITICAL INDEPENDENT”
Trump was visiting a Ford auto plant this week when one of the workers shouted that he was a “pedophile protector” because of his handling of the Epstein files. Trump responded by flipping the bird and mouthing “fuck you” to the offending party.
The employee who heckled Trump is a guy named TJ Sabula. He has since been placed on leave and has raised more than $300,000 on a GoFundMe.
Sabula gave an interview to the Washington Post where he describes his politics and his motivation for shouting at Trump. Some select quotes from that interview:
“As far as calling him out, definitely no regrets whatsoever.”
“I don’t feel as though fate looks upon you often, and when it does, you better be ready to seize the opportunity, and today I think I did that.”
WaPo also reports that Sabula identifies as a “political independent” and “said he never voted for Trump but has supported other Republicans.”
This piece of reporting caught my eye. Would a “political independent” really put his job in jeopardy to accuse the president of protecting pedophiles when that’s been the Democrats’ favorite line of attack for the past six months? Or was this another case of the media pouncing on a convenient narrative that provides the greatest potential damage to Trump and the GOP?
I’m going to give a little bit of grace to Sabula here. The guy is a private citizen who has been thrust into the spotlight — by his own doing, yes, but most people who don’t work in media or politics don’t understand how quickly these viral moments can spiral out of control. Maybe he just played a little loose with the facts because he wanted to come across as a sort of neutral, objective anti-Trump voice rather than a rabid partisan. Maybe he wanted to impress WaPo or the people donating to his GoFundMe.
Little ol’ independent me thinks Trump has gone way too far. It’s so obvious I’m willing to risk my job for it. Shouldn’t you stand up to the pedo protector too?
WaPo gets no grace. This is one of the largest media outlets in the world with endless resources at its fingertips. And yet they swallowed this “political independent” bit hook, line and sinker.
Here’s what I found out after just a modicum of research.
Thomas James (TJ) Sabula has given multiple political donations since 2020. None are very earth-shattering, but all of them went to Democrats.
$5 to ActBlue in July 2020.
$15 to ActBlue in August 2020.
Another $5 to ActBlue in October 2020.
$58.77 to ActBlue in September 2024.
Michigan does not have party registration but voter data from one campaign organization shown to the Daily Caller characterized Sabula as a “hard Democrat” based on his political history.
Sabula’s Facebook page provides more clues for us to follow. In November 2020 he posted a photo of the Statue of Liberty slingshotting Trump into the sky out of a COVID mask. In August 2020 he posted a cartoon image of black Jesus wearing a “Black Lives Matter” T-shirt with a bloody hole in his chest.
None of this should be surprising, but it does speak to a lack of curiosity and basic due diligence that WaPo didn’t find any of this to counter Sabula’s claim he is a “political independent.” Our news organizations need to be better. Or, as Melania says, #BeBest!
That’s it for the free portion of today’s Unfit to Print.
The full subscriber edition continues below with expanded analysis and additional context.