Minnesota Governor Tim Walz ridiculed Donald Trump during his campaign after the former president briefly appeared to struggle while getting into a garbage truck.
Trump staged the moment to attack President Joe Biden for calling Trump supporters trash — or at least appeared to do so in a garbled comment during a Zoom fundraising call.
Trump’s team engineered a PR coup by having the former president get into a garbage truck to condemn his rival and then show up in a high-vis vest during elections, when working-class voters are key. But images of Trump briefly missing the truck’s door handle and dodging a possible fall provided fodder for his critics in attacks that the Harris campaign responded to.
‘This guy is almost 80 years old. He almost killed himself when he got into a garbage truck.” Walz saidmaking a crowd laugh.
Walz, who earned his spot in part by labeling Trump and his team “weird,” then famously spoke of the Harris ticket bringing back the “joy.” He made the comment about Trump, 78, during a campaign event in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground in a state that Trump and many experts have said could determine the outcome of the presidential election.
It’s just the latest twist in a saga of a “garbage” battle that started at a Trump rally and expanded into a Zoom call with a flub from President Joe Biden.
Trump supporters gave high-fives over his attempt to troll Joe Biden by answering questions from a garbage truck – but his critics fueled rumors about his health after seeing him board.
Watch your step: Kamala Harris running mate Tim Walz mocked Trump for briefly struggling while trying to get into a garbage truck for a photo-op
One X user, Matt McDermott, a pollster and consultant, posted a video clip of Trump, 78, getting into the vehicle. It showed that he missed the door handle twice and narrowly avoided a skid on the wet road surface.
“Trump seems to be having a really hard time physically,” he says wrote in a message along with the seven-second clip. It shows Trump, followed by his campaign adviser Chris LaCivita, missing the door handle several times before climbing the steps to the vehicle. It received thousands of retweets.
The post received thousands of comments, including from online users who claimed that Trump, a teetotaler, was drunk.
“Will this lead to networking tonight?” asked former NBA player Rex Chapman.
Former President Donald Trump hosted a photo-op criticizing Joe Biden for his “nonsense” comments. His brief struggle to get into a garbage truck sparked conspiracy theories about his health
Trump spoke about the consequences of a fall, which he said would mean the end of his career
Ron Filipkowski of MeidasTouch.com included it in a video and wrote, “Montage of clips of Trump dragging his right leg in recent months. He refuses to release his medical records.”
The moment came immediately after Trump said, “150 million people are not trash. “I could tell you who the real shit is, but we won’t say,” he added.
It was not clear where he got the amount of 150 million from. About 159 million people voted in the 2020 election, but 74 million voted for Trump and 81 million for Joe Biden.
Other commentators used the clipping to attack Trump. “The irony is that no city or state could hire Donald Trump as a garbage collector, since he is a felon out on bail awaiting sentencing,” wrote former Mitt Romney adviser Stuart Stevens, a Trump critic.
The near skid came during a photo op where Trump climbed into a garbage truck in a high-vis vest and trashed Joe Biden for his “garbage” comments
Trump kept the vest on for his rally in Green Bay and talked about how difficult it was to get into the truck
The moment came at a photo-op where Trump’s team found a striking way to hammer President Joe Biden over his comment calling Trump supporters “trash.” (The White House backed down, claiming Biden said he was referring to offensive jokes made by a comedian at a Trump rally, and released a transcript saying Biden had referred to “supporter trash” with an apostrophe.)
However he meant it, the comment gave Trump’s team a way to revive Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment and claim that Trump and Kamala Harris are disrespecting their supporters.
It came at a bad time for Harris, who gave a speech to thousands of Elipse people in which she emphasized her outreach to Republicans and independents and said she would govern through compromise.
The Trump camp took the opportunity to rise to power after being criticized for comments at the MAGA rally at Madison Square Garden, where Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash.”
Trump talked about the challenge of getting into the truck during his meeting – and made it clear he was aware of the stakes. “I said, how the hell do you get into this truck? It’s very high, it’s a big one,” he said, still wearing the high-vis vest. The line drew laughter from his Green Bay audience.
‘This was a beauty. I said: you didn’t have to buy it that big, did you? Do you have to make it so big?’ He said it was a beautiful truck with a driver who “looked like Cary Grand in his prime.”
“I said, man, this is bad because now I have all the cameras, they’re watching…” before pointing out the “fake news” in the room.
‘One little mistake with these guys and your political career is over. “I’m not going up there, this is going to be very embarrassing.”