By Nathan Layne

(Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday it was not important whether striking union autoworkers secured a favorable deal in negotiations with big carmakers because the shift to electric vehicles would soon make them obsolete.

"It doesn’t make a damn bit of difference what you get because in two years you’re all going to be out of business," Trump told blue-collar workers gathered at a non-union auto supplier outside Detroit.

Trump, who chose to skip the second Republican presidential debate also scheduled for Wednesday night, has been arguing that President Joe Biden's promotion of electric vehicle production through incentives will kill jobs across the industry.

On Tuesday, Biden joined a picket line to show solidarity with United Auto Workers union members, backing their call for a 40% pay raise and improved working conditions.

"Donald Trump is lying about President Biden's agenda to distract from his failed track record of trickle-down tax cuts, closed factories, and jobs outsourced to China," Biden's campaign said in a statement while Trump spoke.

The decision by both Trump and Biden to insert themselves into an escalating dispute between union members and America's three largest carmakers highlights the importance both men place on securing support from working-class voters in Michigan and other battleground states in next year's presidential race.

Trump, who appears on track to clinch the Republican Party nomination and challenge Biden for the presidency, lost Michigan in 2020 by some 154,000 votes. It is one of three Rust Belt states, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, that Trump picked up in 2016 but lost in 2020, and the three will likely prove critical to both parties next year.