- Donald Trump shared an image of President Joe Biden hog-tied in the bed of a passing pickup truck.
- The video was reportedly filmed in Long Island, New York.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump faced criticism Friday for posting a video to his social-media account that appeared to show President Joe Biden hog-tied in the bed of a passing pickup truck.
The caption said the video was taken in Long Island, New York, where Trump had been attending the wake of the NYPD officer Jonathan Diller.
Posted to his Truth Social account, the video showed a passing truck adorned with "Trump 2024" stickers and "thin blue line" flags showing support for police, with the picture of Biden with his hands and feet bound painted on the vehicle's tailgate.
Trump just posted a video of a pickup truck on Truth Social that has a giant image of President Biden bound with rope and laying, apparently kidnapped.
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) March 29, 2024
This is the MAGA violence he is promoting. https://t.co/WFiXIFWU7R pic.twitter.com/Cm4M0QeoKs
Michael Tyler, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, criticized Trump for posting the video.
"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 said in a statement shared with NBC News.
"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."
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, told NBC News: "That picture 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."
Business Insider did not immediately receive a response from the Trump campaign's press office, sent outside standard working hours.
Similar trucks were also spotted when Trump's supporters showed up to protest the comedian Kathy Griffin's "My Life on the PTSD-List" event in Huntington, Long Island, New York. Griffin has faced regular criticism from Trump supporters since 2017 when she posed with a fake severed head resembling the former president.
Trump supporters showed up to protest Kathy Griffin’s “My Life On PTSD-List” in Huntington Long Island “Kathy Griffin you suck” BTW concert was HILARIOUS pic.twitter.com/8GAkHGQuai
— RealSandiBachom (@realsandibachom) March 25, 2024
Inciting violence
The video has prompted concerns that Trump is promoting violent behavior or appearing to threaten the president.
Joyce Alene White Vance, a former US attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, wrote that the Secret Service should take the incident seriously and that 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."
Frank Figliuzzi, a former assistant director with the FBI, wrote: "If you or I did this, we'd have a knock on the door."
The video comes a few weeks after Trump told supporters at an Ohio rally that, if he weren't reelected, there would be a "bloodbath" while speaking about the automobile industry.
Last year, Trump warned about "potential death and destruction" if he were to be charged in the Manhattan district attorney's hush-money case against him.