ISTANBUL

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump staged an intended visual response to US President Joe Biden’s recent "garbage" comments, climbing into a garbage truck branded with his campaign logo on Thursday.

During a visit to Wisconsin, a key swing state, with the presidential election just days away, Trump wore an orange vest meant to look like a sanitation worker’s uniform

In a garbage truck, taking questions from the press, Trump said the “truck is in honor of” Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who is also vice president.

Trump’s event followed Biden’s comments from a campaign call where Biden used the word “garbage.” Trump and his allies said the word was used to slur his supporters, while Biden said he was criticizing a racist joke from Sunday’s Trump rally in which a comedian called the US island of Puerto Rico – largely populated by Latinos – a "floating island of garbage.”

Trump has not apologized for the joke, but claimed of Tony Hinchcliffe, the comedian who warmed up the audience at his rally, “I have no idea who he is.”

Trump declared at the truck event: “250 million Americans are not garbage.” The former president accused Biden of failing to respect Americans, saying: “You can’t lead America if you don’t love Americans.”

In recent weeks Trump has branded his political opponent “enemies of the people” and vowed to prosecute, jail, or deploy the US army against them.

US Election Day – including both presidential and congressional elections – is set for next Tuesday, Nov. 5.