Donald Trump hit back at President Joe Biden for calling his MAGA supporters “trash” with a spectacular nine-word zinger.
“You can’t lead America if you don’t love Americans.” Trump said to a crowd of supporters at a rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on Wednesday.
“And you can’t be president if you hate the American people,” he continued.
Biden compared MAGA supporters to trash while discussing comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke Puerto Rico was an “island of trash” during Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York.
“The only trash I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden said of Trump during a fundraising Zoom on Tuesday night.
Biden’s comment was quickly dismissed by Kamala Harris, but not before creating a firestorm of negative headlines, similar to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 comment calling the same Trump supporters “deplorable.”
Former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on October 30, 2024
“My supporters are much higher quality than boiled Joe,” Trump continued of his MAGA faithful.
“They treated you like dirt because they are downright incompetent people.”
Clarifying the comment, the White House immediately said the president was referring only to Hinchcliffe and not all of Trump’s followers.
Harris became defensive when pressed about her supervisor’s comments on Wednesday.
“He clarified his comments, but let me be clear: I strongly disagree with criticizing people based on who they vote for,” she told reporters.
“I will be a president for all Americans, whether you vote for me or not,” she added.
“That’s my responsibility and that’s the kind of work I’ve done my entire career and I take it very seriously.”
President Joe Biden made the blunder during his speech on Monday
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With just six days until Election Day, Trump stopped in North Carolina for a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, later in the evening
The vice president said he spoke with Biden on Tuesday evening, but it did not come up.
Trump had first raised the phrase in a late-night social media post on Tuesday evening.
“While I am running a campaign of positive solutions to save America, Kamala Harris is running a campaign of hate,” the former president wrote. “She has spent the week comparing her political opponents to the most evil mass murderers in history.”
Kamala Harris says she ‘strongly disagrees’ with voter criticism amid fallout from Biden’s ‘garbage’ comment
Supporters listen to Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech during a campaign rally in Rocky Mount
Trump also played a supercut video of Harris saying his name 20 times during a speech she gave from the Elipse on Tuesday night
‘Now Joe Biden is also calling our supporters ‘trash’. You can’t lead America if you don’t love the American people. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have shown that they are both unfit to be president of the United States.”
Also during the afternoon meeting, the 45th president complained about Harris’ Tuesday evening speech at the Elipse in the White House.
“All she talked about was Donald Trump,” he said.
He also played a super version of Harris saying “Donald Trump” 20 times during the event.