A MAGA congressional candidate is being trolled relentlessly online after announcing that she tipped off Immigration and Customs Enforcement about alleged workplace violations at a Hyundai plant in Georgia that was raided last week.
Tori Branum, 47, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and firearms instructor, said in social media posts and in interviews that she had reported the battery plant, which is under construction near Savannah, to ICE several months before officials conducted the largest work-site immigration raid in Department of Homeland Security history there.
About 475 people were detained, including 300 South Korean nationals.
The raid angered South Korea, a close ally that agreed in July to invest $350 billion in the U.S. in exchange for Trump lowering the duty on Korean products from 25 percent to 15 percent. The tariffs are paid by American companies, with the costs typically passed on to consumers.
“I have gotten hate mail from all over the country with people telling me to die or that I should be in fear,” Branum wrote on Facebook. “I served this country and I’ll go down with the ship before someone silences me.”
Over the past few days, she’s also been inundated with social media comments accusing her of undermining President Donald Trump’s economic agenda and creating a diplomatic scandal with one of the U.S’.’s closest allies.
The battery plant that was raided will be jointly operated by Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, a South Korean battery manufacturer, as part of a $12.6 billion investment in Georgia that also includes a nearby auto factory.
“So MAGA wanted tariffs to bring manufacturing back to the US. But when a company tries to open a plant here, MAGA undermines it. Once again you proved what an embarrassment your party is to our country,” a user wrote under one of Branum’s Instagram posts.
The Hyundai plant arrests came just 10 days after South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung, met Trump in Washington, D.C., where they both vowed to strengthen business ties between the two countries.
“Imagine backing Trump’s ‘bring jobs back’ tariffs then cheering the ICE raid that nuked Georgia’s $4.3B Hyundai plant—475 workers arrested, 40k jobs gone. That’s not America First, that’s economic suicide. You’re a walking contradiction and a clown,” wrote another under a different post by Branum.
“You have caused a serious geopolitical problem between us and S. Korea with your massively ignorant actions,” another user chimed in.
Residents in the Korean capital of Seoul were outraged by the operation’s optics, as footage of the raid showed armored vehicles and shackled workers. In a statement, Hyundai told the Wall Street Journal it didn’t directly employ anyone who was detained.
The South Korean government has negotiated the release of its nationals and is chartering a plane to repatriate them, Reuters reported Monday.
The local press has attacked Branum and accused her of using the raid to generate momentum for her political campaign in Georgia’s 12th district, The Washington Post reported.
“Her justification of ‘protecting American jobs’ rings hollow when her actions sabotage Georgia’s long-term prosperity,” wrote a South Korean business publication called CEO News.
Many users on social media said they hoped the ICE raid would hurt her campaign instead of helping it.
“You literally helped kill the economy in your own area, but you want to be a leader?” a user responded to a third post.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Branum, ICE, DHS, and Hyundai for comment.
Branum has remained defiant throughout it all, telling Rolling Stone in an interview, “This is what I voted for — to get rid of a lot of illegals. And what I voted for is happening.”
At one point, she posted a photo of herself on Facebook holding a modified, AR-15-style rifle with a laser scope, the Korea JoonAng Daily reported.
“I’m kinda curious what that was [that] you said in my inbox,” Branum wrote.
She later took down the post, but still has a different shot of her brandishing an automatic weapon.
“Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime,” she captioned the post, attributing the quote to Benjamin Franklin.
In fact, it was Democratic governor and ambassador Adlai Stevenson II who said it.
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