# Trump address guest: I made a 'damn good choice' by not voting for Democrats anymore

Michigan autoworker Joseph Knowles argues the party is no longer 'for the working people'

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Published March 8, 2025 7:00am EST

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## Quote

Michigan autoworker Joseph Knowles, a guest at President Donald Trump’s , explained why he "made a damn good choice" switching from being a lifelong Democrat to a Republican.

During Trump's address on Tuesday, when he honored a 13-year-old brain cancer survivor and the mother of a 12-year-old girl who was murdered, allegedly by illegal migrants, most Democrats remained seated. Some protested the address by holding signs that read "FALSE," "NO king!" and "MUSK STEALS."

"I'm very disappointed in the Democrats on how they handled things," Knowles told "." "And you know what? I feel like I made a damn good choice of not voting for them anymore, and I'm very proud of how Donald Trump handled it."



Knowles expanded on what made him switch to the Republican Party.

" said their agenda was for the working people, but that's not the case," Knowles said. "They’re out-of-touch, and I can no longer support an organization or a political party like that."

Knowles expressed his disappointment in House and Senate Democrats for refusing to stand for the families of the victims honored during Trump’s address, before blasting them as "out-of-touch."

"You know what? That just shows you how out-of-touch they are," he said. "Because this doesn't matter if you are Republican or Democrat, or Black and White — doesn't matter."

"These are human lives," Knowles continued. "Each one of them had lost someone… You know, these are the people that you said that you protect and sworn in for, but you couldn't stand up for them. You put up signs and you highlight your interests, but these people had lost someone."

According to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted between Feb. 13 and 17, 68% of those surveyed across political parties disapprove of the way .



Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., holds a protest sign with fellow Democrats as President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)

Knowles blamed Democrats’ "true colors" for their ratings and shared an optimistic vision for the future of the Republican Party.

"I think the Democrats are just, they are killing their own selves," Knowles said.

"I got very good hope for the Republican Party. I mean, more and more people are seeing the true colors of the Democrats," Knowles said. "And it took me, I'm sorry, 20 years to see that, and I woke up. I'm very confident the American people will wake up too."

When asked if he would rejoin the Democratic Party, Knowles gave a resounding no.

"I'm gone forever," he said. "I’ve seen enough, and this — what I saw — this isn’t brand new. This has been going on for a long time."

"When the TV has shown and what the world has seen, is this is how they always have handled situations like this," he argued. "They put their agenda first, and that's all they care about."

Knowles described his experience being out of a job and criticized his "union brothers" for blaming Trump for things that "have no effect" on their lives.

"I've got union brothers and blue-collar workers right now that's out of their job right now, and they blame Trump for everything," he continued. "But they was in office for the past four years."



After Knowles lost his job and got it back, men from his union who were still out of work wanted to focus on Trump and bring up "the 34 felonies," he said.

"They want to bring up all the things that really, to be honest with you, have no effect on my life," Knowles said. "It has no effect on their lives. It has no effect on the Border Patrol who was shot at. It has no effect on illegal immigrants coming here and shot and killed a husband and a father. Their priorities is not aligned with ours anymore, and a lot of people are starting to see that."

Stephanie Samsel is a digital production assistant at Fox News Digital. She has previously written for Campus Reform and the Media Research Center, covering political bias in education and entertainment.
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