Trump Draws Criticism After Sharing Video with Image of Biden Tied in the Back of a Truck

Former President and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has drawn renewed criticism for posting a video on his social media platform, Truth Social, which includes images of a truck depicting Joe Biden tied up on its tailgate.

Trump said in the post that the short video was filmed on Long Island on Thursday, day in which he attended the wake of a NYPD officer who was killed during a traffic stop this week. The images showed two trucks with American flags and several signs supporting the Republican presumptive nominee. One of them included the image of a hog-tied Joe Biden.

The Biden campaign quickly condemned the action, with communications director Michael Tyler saying that "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."

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung fired back, saying that the picture of Biden 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," he said, in reference to the numerous legal proceedings Trump is currently facing.

The video marks a new episode of Trump using language or imagery that could be connected to violence. Over the course of the current presidential campaign, he has said that immigrants are "poisoning the blood" of the country and described his opponents as "vermin," a term that drew strong condemnation. Biden linked the comment to "language you heard in Nazi Germany."

More recently, another language-related episode caused renewed controversy, as Trump said that if he doesn't get elected, the auto industry would experience a "bloodbath." "If I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that's going to be the least of it. It's going to be a bloodbath for the country," he said at a rally in Ohio.