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15th January 2026
09:52am GMT
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been donated to a fundraiser for a Ford plant worker who heckled Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, Trump was visiting a Ford manufacturing plant in Michigan when employee TJ Sabula shouted “paedophile protector” at the president.
Trump reacted by appearing to mouth “f*** you” and putting up his middle finger towards Sabula, according to TMZ, who published a video of the incident.
Sabula was subsequently suspended without pay by Ford, but in an interview with the Washington Post, he said he had “no regrets whatsoever” for his comments.
In the wake of the incident and Sabula’s suspension, a GoFundMe page was set up on his behalf to help cover lost income from the suspension.
A flood of donations meant that by the end of Wednesday, $150,000 had already been raised.
Now, donations have been paused on the page, with a total of $330,085 (£246,000) raised for Sabula.
In an update posted on Wednesday, the organiser of the fundraiser said: "TJ and his family greatly appreciate the outpouring of support!
"At this time we are closing donations to this campaign and encourage you to look for other causes and organizations to support. We appreciate every single donation, comment, share, and sign of support!"
In a statement following the factory incident, the White House said: “A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the president gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.”
The remarks from Sabula seem to reference accusations against Trump pertaining to his friendship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s wrongdoing.
It comes as the Epstein files are slowly released by the DOJ, many of which feature a number of famous people including Trump.
Being featured in the files does not imply any wrongdoing.
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