Photo: Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images
Remember back in 2017 when Donald Trump tweeted out a GIF of him body-slamming the CNN logo and it was interpreted as a promotion of violence against journalists? Well on Friday, Trump for the first time shared a truck tailgate meme about kidnapping President Joe Biden, tying him up with rope, and tossing him the back of a pickup. There was then backlash, including rebukes from the Biden campaign and its allies, and a bunch of news coverage, particularly on the heels of Trump’s post-election “bloodbath” comment two weeks ago (and because Trump has, you know, repeatedly promoted violence against his perceived enemies in the past).
In a Truth Social post, Trump shared a video of two pickup trucks fully flared out with MAGA paraphernalia driving down a rainy Long Island freeway. On one of the trucks, the tailgate is adorned with a decal depicting a tied up Biden, as well as numerous flags indicating the driver is a super fan of the police and/or police states — though no flags acknowledging the contradiction of purportedly loving both law enforcement and kidnapping.
Trump is clearly a fan of these Trump fans and their big-ass, flag-flaunting trucks — and it’s at least possible that Trump is also a fan of kidnapped Biden fantasies. After all, the former president has been talking about locking up his political opponents for as long as he has had political opponents, and he might actually try to do that for real if he gets elected a second time. The elaborately tied rope is new, however.
The Biden campaign wasn’t amused. “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,’” said campaign spokesman Michael Tyler in a statement about the post. “Trump is regularly inciting political violence and it’s time people take him seriously,” he continued.
“That picture was on the back of a pick up truck that was traveling down the highway,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in response to the attention, before accusing “Democrats and crazed lunatics” of promoting violence against Trump.
The bound Biden tailgate decals (or wraps) — which are sold by multiple vendors online — have been around for at least a few years; footage of them in the wild is periodically shared on Reddit, TikTok, and other social media platforms, either to decry or laugh at them.
These kidnapping tailgate decal “jokes” have been offending people for a while. In 2013, a Waco, Texas company sparked viral outrage after a Facebook marketing stunt in which it shared a tailgate decal the company had made which depicted a bound kidnapped woman in the back of a pickup. A British man received a visit from police in 2014 after he put a similar decal on the back of his truck.
A Trump fan in Texas was also spotted last year with a tied up and gagged Biden mannequin strapped to the roof of their SUV. That hasn’t become a trend, yet.
There’s at least one kidnapped Trump decal being sold online, too.
This post has been updated.
