Donald Trump has lashed out at Joe Biden for apparently calling his MAGA supporters “garbage” – despite the former president repeatedly describing the whole of the US as a “garbage can.”
“While I am running a campaign of positive solutions to save America, Kamala Harris is running a campaign of hate,” Trump wrote in an early morning Truth Social post on Wednesday.
“She has spent all week comparing her political opponents to the most evil mass murderers in history. Now, on top of everything, Joe Biden calls our supporters ‘garbage.’”
He continued: “You can’t lead America if you don’t love the American People. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have shown they are both unfit to be President of the United States.
“I am proud to lead the biggest, broadest, and most important political coalition in American history. We are welcoming historic numbers of Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and citizens of every race, religion, color, and creed. It is my desire to be the President of all the people.”
Biden sparked a row on Tuesday when he responded to racist comments made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at the former president’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday, when he referred to the US territory of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters, his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American,” Biden said about the widely-condemned comments.
Now, his own remarks have prompted a backlash, with the White House insisting they were misconstrued and taken out of context.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement that Biden “referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as garbage,” not the MAGA crowd.
The White House also posted a statement from the president on his personal X account.
Biden posted: “Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage—which is the only word I can think of to describe it.”
He continued: “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”
Trump’s attempt to seize on Biden’s comments and accuse both him and Kamala Harris of a “campaign of hate” comes despite him repeatedly calling the entire nation a “garbage can”.
“We’re a dumping ground. We’re like a garbage can for the world,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Arizona last week.
“That’s what’s happened. We’re like a garbage can. You know it’s the first time I’ve ever said that. Every time I come up and talk about what they’ve done to our country, I get angrier, and it’s the first time I’ve ever said ‘garbage can,’ but it’s a very accurate description.”
At a Michigan campaign stop on Saturday, the former president again said: “We’re a garbage can. We’re like a garbage can, and they dump their criminals.”
The former president then received raucous applause when he called for “the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.”
On Tuesday, just hours before Biden’s remarks, Trump again told supporters – this time in Pennsylvania – that “it’s like we’re a giant garbage can.”
Trump has also sought to distance himself from Hinchcliffe’s comments – despite the comedian delivering his offensive remarks on stage at the GOP candidate’s big closing argument to voters.
“Nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do,” he said at his Pennsylvania campaign event, referring to the near-six million Puerto Ricans that reside in the US, according to US census data.
In an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Tuesday, he claimed that Puerto Ricans flock to hug and kiss him when they see him on the street.
“I’ve had a really great relationship with Puerto Rico and people from Puerto Rico. Every time I go outside I see somebody from Puerto Rico. They give me a hug and a kiss,” he said.
Biden’s comments came as Harris issued her closing pitch to voters from the Ellipse in Washington DC on Tuesday night – in the very same spot where Trump addressed his supporters before the January 6, 2021 insurrection on the Capitol building.
“It is a choice about whether we have a country rooted in freedom for every American or ruled by chaos and division,” the vice president said.
