Republican presidential candidate and billionaire Donald Trump once again made a mockery of America’s blue-collar workers by donning an orange safety vest, climbing into the passenger seat of a garbage truck bearing his name (twice missing the handle), and declaring: “How do you like my garbage truck?” Speaking to reporters, he added, “This truck is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
The stunt from the former reality TV celebrity was a crude attempt to draw attention away from the racist insults made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally. Over the weekend, Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage,” leading to widespread backlash from prominent leaders in the Puerto Rican community. Later, Trump brushed aside his speaker’s remarks as not “a big deal.”
Trump then capitalized on a comment by President Joe Biden made on Wednesday, prompting Republicans to accuse the president of calling Trump supporters “garbage.” The White House, in a statement, pushed back against the claims and released a full transcript of the comment showing an apostrophe with “supporter’s,” indicating that Biden had referred to Hinchcliffe’s “demonization of Latinos” as “garbage.”
Although Biden and his administration clarified his remarks, Trump and his allies have made a concerted effort to reroute the the sharp criticism from Trump’s MSG rally toward Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Sitting in the passenger side of the garbage truck on Wednesday, Trump once again tried to distance himself from Hinchcliffe and claimed, “I don’t know anything about the comedian. I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him.”
When taking the stage at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, still wearing the neon vest, Trump began by referencing Biden: “250 million Americans are not garbage.” Notably, approximately 335 million people live in the United States.
“One of my people came in and said, ‘Sir, you know the word “garbage” is the hottest thing right now. The hottest thing out there. Sir, would you like to drive a garbage truck?’” Trump bragged to the crowd.
This is the second time in recent weeks that Trump has taken it upon himself to troll his Democratic opponent by dressing up as an everyday, working American. Earlier this month, he wore an apron to work the fry machine and hand food to customers at a McDonald’s drive-thru, hoping to bring attention to his unfounded allegations that Harris did not work there during college.
A spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign said in a statement to Rolling Stone at the time: “Today, Donald Trump showed exactly what we would see in a second Trump term: exploiting working people for his own personal gain. Trump doesn’t understand what it’s like to work for a living, no matter how many staged photo ops he does, and his entire second term plan is to give himself, his wealthy buddies, and giant corporations another massive tax cut.”
From Rolling Stone US
