ABC was particularly supportive of the administration’s push for lower taxes – specifically the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which eliminates federal taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security benefits for seniors. “The historic Working Families Tax Cuts legislation … allows hardworking Americans to keep more of their paychecks and invest in their businesses,” Bellaman said. He also credited the administration for progress on permitting reform and a “more predictable and balanced approach” to environmental regulation for construction employers.

Yet, ABC’s statement wasn’t simply a rubber stamp. The group strongly pressed Trump to “restore government neutrality in federal contracting by reversing President Joe Biden’s illegal project labor agreement mandate.” Citing new unionization data, Bellaman emphasized, “Merit shop construction workers continue to dominate the industry, as the latest government data shows nearly 89% of the U.S. construction workforce is not unionized. These millions of construction industry professionals deserve policies that respect their freedom to belong or not belong to a union.”

ABC also flagged persistent industry headwinds: “the construction industry faces ongoing headwinds from high costs, tariff uncertainty and a chronic workforce shortage,” Bellaman noted, urging pro-growth immigration reform and new market-based worker visa programs to help meet demand.

Labor Unions: A “Fever Dream, Completely Divorced from Reality”

The AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, issued a blistering response. President Liz Shuler dismissed Trump’s claims of economic success as “a fever dream, completely divorced from the economic reality working people feel every day amid rising costs and vanishing jobs.” In her statement, Shuler pulled no punches: “We know Trump’s billionaire-first agenda is all about fattening the bottom line of the extremely wealthy while the rest of us scrape for crumbs. Every time we check out at the grocery store, open a utility bill or look at our paychecks, working people see this economy for what it is: a struggle that suffocates us day after day.”

Shuler accused the administration of “attacking immigrant workers and our communities, giving Big Tech CEOs free rein, ripping away federal workers’ collective bargaining rights while weakening the laws that protect our paychecks.” She cited rising costs and the administration’s efforts to “pit working people against each other: deporting immigrants and ripping people from their families, trying to strip people of their status and work permits, and making it more difficult for working people to vote.”

Despite the grim assessment, Shuler ended on a note of defiance and hope: “Even as the state of our union is under attack, workers are banding together to fight back. These relentless attacks on our freedoms and our livelihoods have made working people hungrier than ever to join a union ... we will organize, we will fight, and we will vote for a country that works for us, not the billionaire bosses.”

A Divided Industry, A Divided Nation

The dueling statements from ABC and AFL-CIO reflect a construction industry – and a country – deeply divided over the president’s policies and rhetoric. Where one group sees a pro-growth agenda delivering “tangible benefits,” the other sees social strife.

For HVAC contractors and construction professionals, the stakes are real: regulatory changes, tax reforms, labor law shifts, and workforce policies all have direct consequences for the shop floor and the job site. As Washington debates, the trades will keep building – and keep watching.