Prominent Democratic strategist James Carville has devised what he believes is the perfect strategy for getting under President Donald Trump’s skin: doubling down on the “pedophile protector” label assigned to him during a visit to Michigan on Monday.
“Wherever he is, you should have people shout ‘pedophile protector,’” Carville said on the Wednesday episode of his Politics War Room podcast. “You know that gets to him. We don’t need anything else to get under his skin. We know what it is.”
“Print signs, show up, do anything you can. Go to town halls when these Republicans are speaking and say, ‘Do you agree that with this auto worker that Trump is a pedophile protector? Would you investigate this?‘” Carville continued.
“Trump had a massive negative reaction to it. And when you find a sore spot, you keep hitting it. Keep hitting it. Hit that sore tooth hard all over the country.” The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
The president was incensed when, during a visit to a Ford plant in Michigan on Monday, one of the employees called him a “pedophile protector.” Trump responded by giving the worker the middle finger and replying, “F–k you.”
The worker, who has since been suspended, was identified as 40-year-old TJ Sabula. Sabula told The Washington Post that he had “no regrets whatsoever” despite the suspension, but believes he was “targeted for political retribution” for “embarrassing Trump in front of his friends.”
Carville noted that Sabula did not threaten the president, but merely “exercised his free speech,” a fact staunch Trump ally Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett begrudgingly acknowledged on Wednesday.
“I think it’s a poor choice of words. I guess he has a First Amendment right, but in Tennessee, we have a right to fire his a–,” Burchett told reporter Pablo Manríquez.
.@PabloReports: What do you make of this union worker who called out Trump?
Burchett: I guess he has a First Amendment right, but in Tennessee we have a right to fire his ass. pic.twitter.com/GFRWzOJ3EG— Acyn (@Acyn) January 14, 2026
Carville also noted that the incident demonstrated that the fact that Trump’s relationship with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein continues to be discussed still bothers Trump.
“I’ll tell you what else that incident shows. For all the talk about the Epstein issue going away, it still really gets to Trump. It does,“ Carville told his co-host Al Hunt.
Trump and Epstein were friends for decades before falling out in the 2000s. He has been accused of sabotaging the release of the files related to the Epstein investigation in order to protect his image, even going so far as quietly removing files that had already been published on the DOJ’s website, including one that featured a photo of Trump.
Carville, who worked as a lead strategist for President Bill Clinton and Senators John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and Michael Bennet, also highlighted the hypocrisy of threatening Sabula’s employment for taking advantage of his First Amendment rights.
“I love… they talk about anti-free speech and cultural authoritarianism and all of the things, and then they get an auto worker fired for what the ultimate free speech is, telling the president what you think?” Carville said.
“They’ve gotta give this guy a Medal of Honor instead of firing him.”
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