Trump dons high-visibility vest to blast Biden's misstep at Wisconsin rally | US elections 2024

Donald Trump dressed like a sanitation worker and once appeared in the cab of a garbage truck. On Wednesday, Donald Trump tried to convince voters in the battleground state of Wisconsin that Democrats think those who vote for him are “trash.”

The histrionic remarks came in response to an apparent verbal gaffe by Joe Biden the night before, in which the president said he should condemn a comedian for his racist remarks at a large rally Trump held at New York's Madison Square Garden over the weekend .

But Trump and his allies have seized on Biden's words to argue that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is being disingenuous in her promise to be a president for all Americans, including those who don't vote for her. During a visit to the city of Green Bay, which lies in a Republican-leaning region of a swing state where polls show anyone can win, Trump made it clear that he was forgoing his normal jacket and donning a reflective orange vest for a speech Arena full of red-covered supporters.

“I have to start by saying that 250 million Americans are not trash,” Trump said at the start of his nearly 90-minute speech. He did not specify how he arrived at the 250 million figure, but it appears to be the approximate total population of the United States minus those who voted for Biden in 2020.

“This week Kamala has compared her political opponents to the most vicious mass murderers in history, and now last night on a campaign call the corrupt Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters. He called her trash. Absolutely not!”

Biden's gaffe, one of many he has made in his nearly four years in office, threatens to complicate Harris' campaign after her attempt to win over Latino voters was marred by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe's comments at the rally Madison Square Garden on Sunday that the US territory of Puerto Rico is “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.”

Puerto Rican stars Bad Bunny and Ricky Martin have since announced their support for Harris, and on Wednesday reggaeton singer Nicky Jam, who also has ties to the island, cited those comments and withdrew his support for Trump.

Still, Biden appeared to open up a new line of attack for the GOP when he said on a Zoom call with a Latino voter organization Tuesday night: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters' – his – his – his demonization.” of Latinos.” unscrupulous and un-American. The president later clarified that he wanted to criticize “the hateful rhetoric” against Latinos at Madison Square Garden, but the Trump campaign insisted that Biden was denigrating people who voted for the former president.

Harris played the defense earlier Wednesday, telling reporters: “I completely disagree with any criticism of people based on who they voted for.” The vice president has made a point of late to appeal to moderate Republicans and independents and fought alongside Republicans who broke with Trump.

But at the Green Bay rally, Trump's second appearance of the day after a stop in North Carolina, Biden's words were all anyone wanted to talk about.

“I can assure you, we are not trash. How dare you say that,” said Brett Favre, the former quarterback of the NFL team Green Bay Packers, who received huge applause during his appearance at the rally.

“When I look out, I see police officers, teachers, nurses, grandparents, students. I see everyday Americans making this country great.”

Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson, who has weathered repeated attempts by Democrats to unseat him and increase their numbers in the upper house of Congress, said: “He called you trash, but let's be honest, that's not what it is “It's the first time Democratic leaders have told half of Americans what they thought of them.” He compared it to Hillary Clinton's joke just before her 2016 election loss that half of Trump's supporters were in a “basket full of deplorables belonged.

While he had previously condemned Biden over the trash comment at a rally in North Carolina, Trump decided to pull off a political stunt of sorts in Green Bay by stepping out of his private plane wearing the orange vest and jumping into the cabin of a waiting dumpster truck on which The words “Trump” were written in blue letters on the side.

Later that evening at the arena, the 78-year-old said he was afraid to climb the steep steps into the truck and that if he fell it would be covered by “all the fake news” waiting on the tarmac. “The first flight of stairs is like up here, and I say, shit,” he told the crowd.

“So I had the adrenaline needed and I did it.”

But as he answered questions in the cab of the truck, he refused to apologize for Hinchcliffe's comments about Puerto Rico, instead repeating his claim that he didn't know who the comedian was or how he was booked to perform at Madison Square Garden be.

“I don’t know anything about the comedian. I don't know who he is. “I’ve never seen him before,” Trump said. “He’s a comedian, what can I tell you? I don't know anything about him. I don’t know why he’s there.”