A World Socialist Web Site reporting team spoke to workers at several Detroit area auto plants Thursday about the US attack on Venezuela and the brutal murder of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis Wednesday.

The increasingly violent and anti-democratic actions of the Trump administration, trampling on all democratic and legal norms, are at the center of discussions in factories and workplaces across the United States and globally. Events are rapidly exposing the naked class interests behind US policy, as well as the role of the corporate media as a mouthpiece for Trump and his billionaire allies.

At the Stellantis Warren Truck Assembly Plant, workers stopped to speak to WSWS reporters during the afternoon shift change. Many had just heard the news of the ICE shooting in Minneapolis and were struggling to make sense of these events.

A veteran Warren Truck worker said he opposed the war in Venezuela and connected it to the recent shooting by ICE agents in Minneapolis. “Trump proved to Americans he will kill you if you go against him. He is a terrorist,” he said.

Asked about what was driving this, he said, “It is about the five wealthiest billionaires. The only way out is to shut the country down. Stop everything. Show them who is in control.”

Speaking of the conditions at Stellantis he said that something needed to be done about the defense of jobs with the introduction of more automation and artificial intelligence. Over 1,000 workers at Warren Truck are still on indefinite layoff, despite boasts by United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, a supporter of Trump’s tariffs, that they would be recalled.

“One person is doing what 10 people used to do. We should be working four hours a day,” so the benefit of technology goes to workers, he said.

A contract worker told the WSWS that the attack on Venezuela by the Trump administration was meant “as a show of force” and statement that “we have more guns than you.”

He said he saw a parallel to the killing of Renee Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis. “I saw the video, it is crazy. They are saying ‘We can do what we want to you.’ It’s totally undemocratic.”

He explained that his family had immigrated from South Asia. “MAGA is based on nationalism. It is the same thing with Modi in India,” he said about the leader of the far-right Hindu chauvinist government in that country. “The methods may be different, but the goals are the same” in terms of diverting workers’ anger by whipping up communalism and nationalist hatreds.

Another worker said, “I don’t want to fight a war. Oil, that is why Trump is doing it. The war is not going to help anyone but the rich and I am not one of those. Wars are fought as a way to launder more money to their pockets. While they claim it is for this and that, the money is going into the offshore accounts of the rich, not for us.”

Another worker agreed, saying, “Trump is at war with Venezuela, and he is also at war against the American people.”

A third noted that the American news media had provided uncritical support for Trump’s attack on Venezuela. “I’m sure that if it was Russia bombing or invading people and stuff like that, they would call that terrorism.”

Workers at Dana Corporation in Warren also spoke out against the war on Venezuela and the ICE murder in Minneapolis. One said, “We have three wars going on right now. One with Venezuela and boots on the ground in Ukraine,” he said, referencing the sending of US advisors and special operations forces to aid the proxy war against Russia. Meanwhile, “The US and Israel are bombing Iran.”

Another worker noted, “What the US is doing in Venezuela is to oppress the people there, and what ICE is doing in this country is to oppress the people here.”

A veteran Stellantis autoworker, a regular reader of the WSWS, denounced the murder of Renee Good. “I saw the videos. Trump lied. They said the lady was a vicious terrorist that tried to run over the ICE agent.”

Speaking about the US attack on Venezuela, he said, “You know, the whole reason behind the UN and Security Council was supposed to be to do away with the doctrine of ‘might makes right’ that we saw in World War I and World War II. So, now they are trying to get back to that. You have Stephen Miller talking about, ‘Why should we let a country sell oil to our enemies?’ and all that. They are not the ones who are actually going to be fighting. They want to kill everybody else’s sons and daughters, not their own.

“These guys are trying to drag us into a war, acting like mob bosses and thugs, taking people’s oil and kidnapping. The media says, ‘how audacious.’ What are they talking about? I had a thief that was audacious enough to break into my house in the still of the night and take everything. I mean, he is not a goddamn hero. That shows that the corporate media completely sold out.

“The US starts wars, telling everybody it is to stop the tide of communism and to protect people. At the same time, they are the ones that are down there killing the people, imposing regime changes, destabilizing economies and keeping all these different countries under the thumb of oppression, just so that they can go in and rob the resources from the people.

“But then the billionaires tell you to be mad at the immigrants. All the while they are picking your pockets.

“But the one thing that you have in common with all other workers is that you have a boss, right? You got rich people somewhere at the top taking all the money, and we are paid a little bit of money. It’s basically a Ponzi scheme. They get you to give them your time and energy, and that time and energy gives them hundreds of millions and billions of dollars in profits.”

He spoke about the deteriorating economic situation in the US and the impact on workers. The job cuts in 2025, he said, were only “anticipatory.”

“Even more layoffs are going to come when those tariffs really hit. It is going to be a rude awakening for everybody.”