Former President Donald Trump on Friday posted a video that featured an image of President Joe Biden tied up in the back of a pickup truck.
Trump indicated that the post was filmed on Long Island on Thursday, when he was attending the wake of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller, who was killed during a traffic stop this week. The video shows two trucks with flags and decals expressing support for Trump; the image of Biden was on the back of the second truck.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement, “That picture was on the back of a pick up truck that was traveling down the highway. Democrats and crazed lunatics have not only called for despicable violence against President Trump and his family, they are actually weaponizing the justice system against him.”
Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler told CNN in a statement, “This image from Donald Trump is the type of crap you post when you’re calling for a ‘bloodbath’ or when you tell the proud boys to ‘stand back and stand by.’ Trump is regularly inciting political violence and it’s time people take him seriously — just ask the Capitol Police officers who were attacked protecting our democracy on January 6.”
Asked for comment on the video, the US Secret Service said that it “does not confirm or comment on matters of protective intelligence.”
The video marks another instance of Trump using dark and violent imagery in his campaign messaging as his penchant for inflammatory rhetoric appears to be buoying his White House bid.
Trump warned earlier this month that if he were to lose the 2024 election, it would be a “bloodbath” for the US auto industry and the country.
The remark came as Trump promised a “100% tariff” on cars made outside the US, arguing that domestic auto manufacturing would be protected only if he is elected. The comment also came in the midst of an extended riff on the auto industry, unions, the transition to electric vehicles and auto plants in Mexico.
The former president said in December that migrants are “poisoning the blood” of the US and quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack Biden as a “threat to democracy.”
His comments align with a pattern of expressing fondness for foreign leaders who use anti-democratic measures to maintain power.
In another instance, Trump used the word “vermin” to describe his political rivals at a campaign event in New Hampshire in November, drawing broad condemnation, including from Biden, who likened his comments to “language you heard in Nazi Germany.”
Trump told the crowd: “We will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country,” and warned that “the real threat is not from the radical right. The real threat is from the radical left, and it’s growing every day.”