Donald Trump pulled off an election stunt with a garbage truck on Wednesday as the White House campaign was forced off track by President Joe Biden's rambling comments about the Republican's supporters that caused a headache for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Harris had hoped to spend the day expanding on the final week's “closing argument” she delivered the night before at a large gathering in Washington — but instead found herself dismissing Biden's comment that Trump supporters seemed to label it 'garbage'.
Trump — who, unlike Harris, has recently publicly called his political opponents “trash” — was on hand to exploit the misstep by taking a photo, climbing into a garbage truck at a Wisconsin airport and asking reporters to answer.
The row began this weekend when a warm-up at a Trump rally called the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico “a floating island of trash,” in comments that initially put the Republican campaign on the defensive.
Yet Biden's blunder offered Trump an opportunity to play the victim.
BREAKING: Donald Trump is picked up by a garbage truck in Green Bay, Wisconsin, just a day after Joe Biden called Trump supporters “trash.” pic.twitter.com/jqjiX6a43V
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 30, 2024
“What do you think of my garbage truck? This truck is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden,” Trump said from the vehicle's cabin.
“You can't be president if you hate the American people, which I think you do,” Trump later added at his Green Bay rally, still wearing his high-vis jacket.
But as Republicans expressed outrage over Biden's comments, anti-Trump political group The Lincoln Project shared a video of the September 7 Republican rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin — verified by AFP — in which he called “the people around” the called vice president. “waste.”
Trump had just attacked Harris over the employment numbers before saying, “And it's not her, it's the people around her. They are scum. They are scum, and they want to bring our country down. They are absolute trash.”
Harris, meanwhile, traveled to North Carolina and on to Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, refocusing on three of the seven battleground states that could determine who wins the closest election in modern American history.
In Madison, Wisconsin, she told supporters: “People are exhausted and want it to stop, the fingers are pointing. It's time we join arms as a people that rises and falls together.”
More than 57 million people have already cast their votes via early voting or voting by mail, more than a third of the 2020 total.
'Unstable, obsessed'
Trump – who has 34 convictions for crimes related to the 2016 election – is expected to reject Tuesday's outcome if he loses.
The Republican is already using mundane verification processes by election officials to bolster his claims of widespread “cheating.”
Harris, meanwhile, was forced to fend off questions about Biden's gaffe, which came as the president responded to a comedian at a Trump rally who called Puerto Rico “a floating island of trash.”
“The only trash I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden said, before the White House tried to clarify that he was referring to Trump's rhetoric, not his supporters.
“Let me be clear: I absolutely disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” said Harris, Biden's vice president.
In North Carolina, Harris hammered home her campaign's message of “turning the page” on Trump, leading the crowd in chants of “we're not going back!”
“This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with resentment and bent on unchecked power,” Harris said.
'Cheating' claims
In Washington, Harris had spoken at the site where Trump stirred up a mob that then attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a violent attempt to keep him in power even though he lost the 2020 election to Biden.
Trump has used social media to repeat his claims of voter fraud, appearing to set the stage for a repeat crackdown on the baseless claim that his 2020 loss to Biden was rigged.
He denounced what he said as “cheating” on “never before seen large-scale levels” in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania.
At his rally in North Carolina, Trump again cast doubt on the fairness of voting machines and called for a return to paper ballots.
His campaign made a new plea Wednesday for campaign donations by citing Biden's comments.
But one person who won't vote for Trump on November 5 will be actor and former Republican governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, who endorsed Harris.
“Rejecting the results of an election is as un-American as it gets,” he said of Trump.
Inflation and the economy have been key themes this election, and on Wednesday new data showed solid economic growth despite a slight slowdown.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)