A Ford employee who was suspended after heckling President Donald Trump has sparked an outpouring of crowdfunding support.
The GoFundMe donations, totally nearly $700,000 in less than 24 hours, come after the Ford line worker, TJ Sabula, told The Washington Post that he heckled Trump during the President’s visit to his workplace.
Trump visited a Michigan plant on Tuesday where the automaker builds its best-selling F-150 full-size pickup truck. The brief visit was intended to highlight the White House’s commitment to rebuilding the US workforce and Ford’s focus on rebuilding a blue-collar workforce pipeline.
Video from the event obtained by TMZ shows Trump gesturing after someone shouted “pedophile protector” — which Sabula has since said was him — in an apparent reference to White House’s delay in releasing the full Epstein files. The President can be seen raising his middle finger after the remark and mouthing an expletive.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The White House told several news outlets that Trump was appropriately responding to “a lunatic” who “was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage.”
A source at the United Auto Workers (UAW), the union that represents the Ford plant, confirmed to Business Insider that Sabula was suspended.
“The autoworker at the Dearborn Truck Plant is a proud member of a strong and fighting union—the UAW,” Laura Dickerson, the vice president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), told Business Insider in an email.
“He believes in freedom of speech, a principle we wholeheartedly embrace, and we stand with our membership in protecting their voice on the job.”
Dickerson said the UAW is reviewing Sabula’s suspension.
“Workers should never be subjected to vulgar language or behavior by anyone — including the President of the United States,” she added.
Sabula told the Post that he has “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,” he added.
$692,000 raised and counting
By mid afternoon on Wednesday, two GoFundMe accounts campaigning for Sabula had raised more than $417,000 and $275,000.
“TJ Sabula is a patriot,” said one of the GoFundMe campaigns, which more than 18,000 people donated to.
GoFundMe
“Let’s rally and support TJ and help him pay some bills (and force DJT to release the Trump/Epstein Files),” continues the post, which was published last night.
In November, Trump signed a bipartisan bill called the Epstein Files Transparency Act that required the release of all FBI materials from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein by December 19, 2025. While some files have been released, the Department of Justice said it’s still scrambling to review around 5.2 million remaining documents weeks after the mandated release date.
“TJ Sabula, a worker at the Ford Rouge Plant, voiced concerns about President Donald J Trump during the president’s visit to the plant. Ford responded by suspending TJ without pay,” reads a second GoFundMe organized by Diandra Gourlay, which has raised money from 11,000 people.
Gourlay described herself as “a longtime personal friend of the Sabula family.”
GoFundMe
Both GoFundMe campaigns list “Thomas Sabula” as the official beneficiary of the donations. Neither page owner immediately responded to Business Insider’s request for comment.
Sabula, Ford, and the White House didn’t respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
