President Donald Trump gave a middle finger to someone during a tour of a Michigan Ford plant Tuesday — and the White House shrugged, calling it an “appropriate” response.
“A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the President gave an appropriate and unambiguous response,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said.
A video widely circulated online, about 30 seconds long, shows someone shouting toward the president. According to TMZ, the person yelled “pedophile” though the audio is fuzzy. Trump walks through the factory floor, points several times, then clearly flips off someone with his right hand.
A second, closer angle zooms in on the interaction and shows the same apparent insult. TMZ notes that Trump also points at the individual while mouthing—or perhaps saying—“fuck you” twice.
Ford tried to walk the line between neutrality and damage control. “We had a great event today and we’re proud of how our employees represented Ford,” said David Tovar, Executive Director of Corporate Communications. “We’ve seen the clip you’re referring to. 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.”
The whole scene has all the subtlety of a political circus, with one side screaming accusations and the other side responding with an vulgar gesture that could only come from Trump.
Watch the clip below:
President Donald Trump seen flipping off a ford worker who yelled "pedophile protector" during Trump’s visit — TMZ
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— Blackpill (@BlackpillHQ) January 13, 2026
