Trump Owned Himself With That Garbage Truck Stunt
Trump thought he was dunking on Joe Biden, but all he did was draw more attention to the racist jokes from his MSG rally. Also, we take a quick spin through all the tacky merch he's been selling this election.
Photo: Getty Images Politics 2024 Election
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 (Reggaeton star Nicky Jam even rescinded his Trump endorsement on Wednesday.)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!