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

Donald Trump uses a garbage truck to mock Biden's "garbage" comment, faces backlash for Puerto Rico joke.

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, across a rain-soaked tarmac and climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.

The former president wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Mr. Trump’s supporters were “garbage”. Mr. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

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

Mr. Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Mr. Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” Mr. Trump then seized on a comment Mr. 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 afterwards, saying he had intended to say Mr. Trump's demonisation of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.

On Thursday (October 31, 2024), after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Mr. 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 Mr. Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologise to Puerto Ricans.