The center of presidential politics this week was the swing state of Michigan.

Trump won the longtime Democratic stronghold in 2016 and Biden won it back in 2020.

It will be pivotal again in 2024.

And that's why both candidates flew to Metro Detroit on consecutive days this week

to insert themselves into the United Auto Workers' Strike against the so-called Detroit 3,

General Motors Ford and Stellantis, the company that owns Chrysler.

On Tuesday, Joe Biden, the self-proclaimed most pro-union president in history,

appeared in Wayne County, home of Detroit, on a picket line with workers.

Something no modern president has done during a strike.

His message that UAW members deserve to raise now that their employers have recovered

from the Great Recession.

On Wednesday, Donald Trump held an opposing rally in neighboring McComb County.

According to Trump, the real problem was Joe Biden's insistence on transitioning

the industry to electric vehicles. Something that, in the former president's words,

has already sold workers out to China, environmental extremists, and the radical left.

Now they want to go all electric and put you all out of business, you know that, right?

When you unpack the politics of the two Michigan trips, a lot of big issues emerge.

Popularism, trade, the U.S.-China relationship, climate change,

the long-running debate between environmentalists and unions,

and questions about whether the Democrats or Republicans are the party of the working class.

And there is one member of Congress who understands all of this better than just about anyone in

Washington. Representative Debbie Dingell. I'm Ryan Liza, and this is Playbook Deep Guy.

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