Trump ‘threatens’ Biden with image of president bound and kidnapped in back of Maga truck
Trump’s video shows an image of President Biden with his hands and feet tied on the back of a truck
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Your support makes all the difference.Former president Donald Trump is being heavily criticised on social media after he shared a video of Maga-branded pickup trucks that included an image of president Joe Biden kidnapped and bound in the back.
Mr Trump posted the video with little added commentary on Truth Social. It shows two passing trucks decked out with flags and messages including “Trump 2024”.
On the back of one of the trucks is an image of President Biden with his hands and feet tied.
In his caption, he wrote that the video was taken in Long Island, New York on Thursday.
The former president, who is now presumed to be the Republican contestant for 2024, had earlier in the day attended the wake of a New York City police officer who was killed during a traffic stop.
Similar trucks were also spotted when Mr Trump’s supporters showed up to protest against Kathy Griffin’s “My Life On PTSD-List” event in Huntington Long Island, according to a social media post by video journalist Sandi Bachom.
The video has prompted concerns that Mr Trump was promoting violent behaviour or appearing to threaten the president.
Former US attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, Joyce Alene White Vance, wrote that the Secret Service should take the incident seriously and that Mr Trump’s post was “totally out of bounds”.
“I know from experience how the Secret Service interacts with people who make threats against Potus, even ones they can’t carry out,” she wrote on X.
“This, from a former president, is totally out of bounds. It’s time to stop letting Trump break the rules. Long past time.”
“If you or I did this, we’d have a knock on the door,” wrote Frank Figliuzzi, former FBI assistant director.
The US Secret Service has responded to the post, saying in a statement that it “does not confirm or comment on matters of protective intelligence”.
The Biden campaign said people need to take Mr Trump’s incitement of political violence seriously.
“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,” said Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign’s communications director.
In response, Mr Trump’s campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said: “That picture was on the back of a pickup 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 weaponising the justice system against him.”
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