Green Bay, Wis. (AP) – Donald Trump Descending the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walking across the rain-soaked tarmac, and after missing the handle twice, climbs into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that bears his name.
The former president, once known for his showmanship as a reality TV star, wanted to draw attention to a comment made by his successor, the Democratic Party, a day earlier. Joe Bidenthat Trump’s supporters are trash, he suggested. Trump has used the comment as a jab against his Democratic rival, the vice president Kamala Harris.
“How do you like my trash cart?” Trump wore an orange and yellow safety coat over his white dress shirt and red tie. “It’s a tribute to Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans have faced their own pushback over the comedian’s comments at a Trump rally over the weekend that denigrated Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” Trump seized on Biden’s comment in a call late Wednesday, saying, “The only trash I have floating around out there are his supporters.”
The president later tried to clarify the point, saying he meant to say that Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving for an evening rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump boarded a garbage truck and held a brief discussion with reporters while staring out the window — just as he did earlier this month. Photo opportunity He performed at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke sparked a storm, but Trump did not condemn it. He added that there was no need to apologize to the Puerto Rican people.
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“I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. “I don’t know who he is. I have never seen him. I heard he gave a statement, but that was his statement. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I don’t know anything about him.
A spokeswoman for Trump said the joke did not reflect his views, but that the former president did not address it himself.
“I love Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico loves me,” Trump said from the garbage truck.
He concluded his brief appearance with reporters: “I hope you enjoyed this garbage truck. Thank you very much.”
When he took the stage a little later, he was wearing an orange vest.
