Trump Causes a Ruckus With Biden Clip

Donald Trump headed to Long Island on Thursday to attend the wake of NYPD officer Jonathan Diller, who was shot Monday in Queens during a traffic stop. But it was a video of a pickup truck that he apparently spotted during his travels and shared online that's earning him new headlines, with some calling it an incitement to violence.

• The graphic: As shown in the short clip the former commander in chief posted on his Truth Social platform on Friday afternoon, the tailgate of the flag-adorned truck driving next to Trump's caravan featured an altered image of a tied-up President Biden appearing to be lying on the floor of the truck as he's carted away, per Mediaite.
• Other sightings: A local journalist saw what appears to be the same truck (at around 1:25 in this video) the previous weekend, protesting outside a venue in the Long Island town of Huntington, where comedian Kathy Griffin was set to perform.

• Call to violence? Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign's communications director, slammed the picture. "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,'" Tyler says, per the Telegraph. "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 Jan. 6."
• History: The Times notes that Trump has used violence-tinged imagery in the past, including posting a photo of himself wielding a baseball bat near Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg; sharing spoof videos of him hitting Biden with golf balls; and showing a Trump-branded train slamming into a CNN reporter.
• Trump camp: A spokesperson for the former president responded to the commotion over the image, noting, per the New York Times, "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 weaponizing the justice system against him."
• Not exactly unique: That truck doesn't seem to be the only one featuring the bound-Biden image.

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