Featured Image Credit: MANDEL NGAN/Getty
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, Michigan, Social Media, Viral
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, Michigan, Social Media, Viral
A man who was suspended from his job for branding Donald Trump a 'pedophile protector' has had a staggering amount of cash raised for him.
Yesterday (January 13), Trump visited a Michigan Ford plant, and the trip took a sour turn when the president was heckled by a member of staff there.
In a video obtained by TMZ, a man shouted at Trump and called him a 'pedophile protector', to which the president seemingly responded by flipping him off.
It's believed the comments were regarding the apparent delay in releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files.
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The man who shouted at Trump, who has since been identified as 40-year-old TJ Sabula, was later suspended from his position at Ford.
Sabula has now spoken out about the ordeal and is seemingly unfazed by his dismissal.
Sharing that he had 'no regrets' about what he said, Sabula told The Washington Post: "As far as calling him out, definitely no regrets whatsoever."
Going on to say that Trump could hear him 'very, very, very clearly', Sabula thinks he was let go and 'targeted for political retribution' as a result of '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 added. "And today I think I did that."
The White House has responded to the incident, labelling Sabula a 'lunatic'.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, who recently took aim at Mark Ruffalo, said in a statement: "A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the President gave an appropriate and unambiguous response."
In the wake of Sabula's firing, a GoFundMe was set up for him, and at the time of writing, a whopping $355,474 has been raised.
Part of the bio for the fundraiser reads: "Please help us raise funds for patriot TJ Sabula!! TJ was suspended from his job at the Ford Automotive Company for correctly calling President Donald J Trump a Pedophile Protector!!
"Let’s rally and support TJ and help him pay some bills (and force DJT to release the Trump/Epstein Files) LFG!!"
The page was created by Sean Williams, and he has successfully transferred it over to Sabula, who is now in control of it.
After the clip went viral on social media, Ford’s Executive Director of Corporate Communications, David Tovar, told CNN that they'd 'seen the clip you’re referring to', adding: "One of our core values is respect, and we don’t condone anyone saying anything inappropriate like that within our facilities.
"When that happens, we have a process to deal with it but we don’t get into specific personnel matters."
UNILAD has previously contacted the White House and Ford for comment.