Trump Owned Himself With That Garbage Truck Stunt

Welcome back to Barf Bag. This Friday (or, in this case, Saturday) feature, highlighting the most vomit-inducing news of the week, is typically a subscriber-only benefit. But in these final weeks before Election Day, we’re making Barf Bag available to all readers. (Feel free to still subscribe!)

In the second episode in as many weeks, former President Donald Trump has taken to cosplaying as a blue-collar worker. First was the entirely staged McDonald’s stunt on October 20, where he worked the french fry fryer and repeatedly expressed to reporters standing in the empty drive-through lane how wondrous it was that he didn’t have to touch the fries. “Never touched by a human hand,” said a man who appears to have never considered how food safety standards work.

Then, before a Wednesday night rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump chose to ride to the venue in a garbage truck festooned with Trump 2024 branding. He even put on a high-visibility safety vest that rivaled the color of his makeup. (Trump kept the vest on for the rally where he talked about wanting to “protect women..whether they like it or not.”)

Now, this whole set-up was supposed to be a dunk on an alleged gaffe from President Joe Biden, who seemed to call Trump’s supporters “garbage” on a get-out-the-vote Zoom call the night before. But Biden clarified that he was talking about Madison Square Garden rally speaker, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage“—not about all Trump voters. Hinchcliffe also made racist comments about Latinos in general and some key Republicans have been nervous that this could have an impact at the 11th hour, especially after huge celebrities like Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez, and Ricky Martin responded by either sharing pro-Harris content or endorsing her outright. (Reggaeton star Nicky Jam even rescinded his Trump endorsement on Wednesday.)

Trump has claimed not to know who Hinchcliffe is, and insists that “someone put him up there [on stage].” Yet here Trump is, implicitly drawing more attention to the racist jokes Hinchcliffe made. Biden only used the word garbage because Hinchcliffe said it!

As Americans are outraged by someone at his rally who compared Puerto Rico to garbage, Trump thought it would be cute to take questions from a gigantic garbage truck pic.twitter.com/pjMYRO2vqA

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 30, 2024

Back to the execution of the stunt itself, Trump also missed the door handle and struggled mightily to climb into said garbage truck. It was more than generous for the CNN reporter below to describe this act as “hopping in.” As Harris’ running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) put it, “This dude is nearly 80 years old. He damn near killed himself getting in a garbage truck.”

Trump takes questions from reporters from a garbage truck

“250 million people are not garbage,” he said, hopping into the passenger side pic.twitter.com/1oxKBBQf7d

— Kit Maher (@KitMaherCNN) October 30, 2024

In conclusion, Trump’s little stunt drew more attention to the racist jokes that top Republicans are worried could cost them the election and reminded everyone that he is almost 80 when voters are increasingly concerned about his age and ability to do the job.

If Harris defeats him, I expect to see the clip of Trump struggling to hoist himself into a garbage truck get memed all over the internet. You, too, can help take out the trash.

And, for the final Barf Bag before Election Day, here is a list of some, but not all, of the tacky merchandise Trump’s been selling to try to get rich off running for president a third time. There are—deep breath—sneakers ($199-$499), Timberland-style boots ($199-$299), photo books ($100), his wife’s book ($40-$250), silver and gold coins ($100 to $3,645.47), NFT trading cards ($100), watches ($499 to $100,000), forthcoming fragrances ($199), and, yes, Bibles ($59.99; Trump gets a cut and he earned a $300,000 endorsement fee).

• Trump transition chair Howard Lutnick said he recently spent more than two-and-a-half hours with possible Trump administration hire RFK Jr., who talked about how to get the government to pull vaccines from the market. [CNN/Twitter]
• Oh good, guy-thirsty-for-civil-war Steve Bannon was released from federal prison this week. [NBC News]
• Headline: “Elon Musk, Who Has Tweeted Over 109 Times Today, Is Too ‘Busy’ For Illegal Lottery Court Appearance” [Jalopnik]
• Musk’s pro-Trump PAC is also running ads calling Harris a “c word,” which stands for…..communist. [Popular Information]
• GOP Senate nominee and former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan privately touts his Trump endorsement, after repeatedly saying that he didn’t want his support. What a moderate maverick! [CNN]
• An anonymous donor bankrolled the (thus far unsuccessful) lawsuits over Florida‘s abortion ballot measure, Amendment 4. [Tampa Bay Times]
• Just-Asking-Questions podcast millionaire Joe Rogan said an interview with Harris didn’t work out because they would “only” give him an hour and he would have had to travel to her rather than use his studio in Austin. [Mediate]
• Speaking of the cursed MSG rally, rapper 50 Cent claims he turned down $3 million to appear there. [The Guardian]
• Bad: A Texas man punched an election worker who told him to remove a Trump hat at a voting site. [Associated Press]
• Way fucking worse: A Florida teen who wielded a machete at a polling place was arrested for voter intimidation. [ABC News]

This has been your weekly Barf Bag, thanks for reading, and thank you to all poll workers!