Donald Trump boards a garbage truck to draw attention to Biden remark

Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.

Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.

The former U.S. president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, U.S. Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump's supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris.

“How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. “This is in honour of Kamala and Joe Biden.”

Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”

The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump's demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.

On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wis., for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.

He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.