President Biden’s Statement Sparks Controversy: Did He Call Trump Supporters “Trash”?

US President Joe Biden has caused a stir with a statement during a campaign phone call just a week before the US elections. In a video of the call, Biden appears to call Donald Trump voters “garbage.” However, the White House has clarified that the president was simply misunderstood.

The controversy began when a comedian at a major Trump campaign event described the US territory of Puerto Rico as an island of garbage floating in the ocean. This statement sparked widespread anger in Puerto Rico, which could become a problem for Trump just before the election. Approximately 500,000 Puerto Ricans live in the highly competitive and potentially decisive electoral state of Pennsylvania alone.

In the online event, Biden spoke positively about Puerto Ricans and criticized Trump. He was then quoted online and by Trump’s site as saying: “The only trash I see going on is his supporters.” However, according to the official White House transcript, the sentence went even further — and Biden described as trash not the supporters themselves, but rather statements that “demonized Latinos.”

Biden himself later clarified on the online platform X that he meant the rhetoric, stating, “That’s all I wanted to say.” However, the quote that initially made the rounds had already been shared at a Trump campaign appearance, and Elon Musk, who owns X, wrote that Biden calls half of America “garbage.”

Trump immediately drew a comparison with his former opponent Hillary Clinton’s statement during the 2016 US presidential election campaign, in which she described “half” of her opponent Trump’s supporters as “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic and Islamophobic.” Clinton later publicly regretted saying “half of it” but stressed that Trump had unfortunately amplified “hateful opinions and voices.”

Biden’s mistake is also likely to be inconvenient for Democratic incumbent Kamala Harris, who has vowed to conquer the division in the United States. In her latest election campaign appearance in Washington, she promised to be the president of all Americans and always put the country above the party and herself.

Harris emphasized her commitment to finding common ground and listening to those who disagree with her. She stated, “I promise to be the president of all Americans and always put the country above the party and myself. I will look for compromises and find solutions using common sense. I will also listen to those who disagree with me and do not vote for me.”