Trump has a long history of using dark and combative language and posting provocative images.
Washington:
Donald Trump was criticized on Saturday for a video on his Truth Social platform that showed President Joe Biden “tied up,” as if he had been kidnapped.
Video released Friday afternoon showed two pickup trucks driving down the highway, each carrying multiple pro-Trump signs and flags. The tailgate of the second truck had a photo of Biden with his hands tied behind his back.
Biden’s re-election campaign said Republican nominee Trump’s posts could lead to violence. Trump’s language has become increasingly vitriolic during his campaign for president.
“This photo of Donald Trump is the type of garbage you post when you call for massacre or when you tell the Proud Boys to ‘stand back and stand by,'” Biden spokesman Michael Taylor told AFP, referring to the extreme Right-wingers participated in the militia attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.
He continued: “Trump often incites political violence, and it’s time people take him seriously — just ask the Capitol Police officers who were attacked on January 6 while trying to protect our democracy.”
The Trump campaign is unapologetic.
“Democrats and deranged lunatics are not only calling for despicable violence against President Trump and his family, they are actually weaponizing the justice system against him,” spokesman Chang Ning said.
The US Secret Service, which protects current and former presidents, did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Trump has a long history of using dark and combative language and posting provocative images.
Earlier this month, he warned of “carnage” for the U.S. auto industry and, as some have heard, the entire country if Biden wins in November.
Trump accused immigrants in December of “poisoning the American blood.”
In November, he lashed out at political opponents, vowing to “eradicate the communists, Marxists, fascists and radical left thugs who live like vermin within our borders.”
That prompted a response from Biden, who said Trump was using “language you heard in Nazi Germany.”
Biden, 81, has reversed Trump’s attacks, recently deriding the Republican four years his junior as “old,” “out of shape” and suffering from cognitive decline.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
