BY MARTIN KICH

This is how the official Trump campaign site marked Labor Day:

 

Trump did, however, tweet about his meeting with union leaders at an American Legion Post in Youngstown–after he bragged about some very selectively highlighted poll numbers:

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 

Heading to Youngstown, Ohio now-some great polls. #AmericaFirst

 

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump  Brook Park, OH

Thank you American Legion Post 610- for hosting @Mike_Pence & I for a roundtable with labor leaders. #LaborDay #MAGA

 

On his Facebook page he did post this message:

“Labor Day is a long-standing tradition celebrating the American worker but with millions of Americans out of work, we must do something to get America back to work. As President I will end bad trade deals and bring back American jobs for our people!#AmericaFirst!”

And this video: https://www.facebook.com/DonaldTrump/videos/10157627283230725/. (I could not find the embed code for this video.

 

Nowhere does the self-declared “voice of the American worker” indicate any support for—or, in fact, any specific positions on–labor unions, collective bargaining rights, job-safety rules, prevailing wage, minimum wage, or any guaranteed level of employment or unemployment benefits.

Indeed, if one were viewing the video without any sense of the holiday’s history, one might think that Labor Day was simply some sort of generic acknowledgement of the contributions of American workers—that is, a minimal corporate gesture in the same category as describing underpaid employees as associates or, much worse, as family.

 

Here is a contrasting perspective on the holiday, offered by a long line of prominent Democrats:

The URL for the video is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F28ozwsiAlA.

 

To go back to the selective polling numbers in Trump’s tweet, here is Five Thirty-Eight’s Labor Day projection of the November results:

The website [http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/] allows you to look at the most recent state-by-state polling, and in most instances the Reuter’s/Ipsos polls in the states that Trump cites appear to be outliers: that is, they consistently lean towards him while other polls do not. For instance, in Wisconsin, the Reuter’s/Ipsos and Marquette University polls are both rated “A” by Five Thirty-Eight, but the Reuter’s/Ipsos polls show an even race or Trump slightly ahead, while the Marquette University polls show Clinton more consistently leading and by a somewhat more substantial margin.

In any case, Trump ignores the recent Reuter’s/Ipsos polls in “contested” states such as Colorado (Clinton +6), Florida (Clinton +4), Minnesota (Clinton +9), Nevada (Clinton +8), North Carolina (Clinton +5), Pennsylvania (Clinton +8), and Virginia (Clinton +13). The Reuter’s/Ipsos polls in Florida, Nevada, and North Carolina are at least as surprising as those that Trump cites.