Former President and 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump has been criticized after sharing a video on his social media platform, Truth Social, of a truck bearing the image of President Joe Biden tied up.
The video, posted on Friday, March 29, showed two vehicles decked out in American flags, a Blue Lives Matter flag—showing support for law enforcement—and other images. “Trump 2024” is seen on the side of the black pickup truck. The caption on the post appeared to indicate that the trucks were spotted in Long Island, New York, on Thursday, where Trump attended the wake of an NYPD officer who was shot and killed.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]But what alarmed critics the most was the image of a hog-tied President Biden on the rear of the vehicle, giving the illusion he was being held in the back of the truck.
“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,’” Michael Tyler, the Communications Director for the Biden campaign, said in a statement, per 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.”
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told NBC News that the “picture was on the back of a pickup truck that was traveling down the highway,” and said “Democrats and crazed lunatics” had called for violence against Trump. He added that they were “weaponizing the justice system against him.”
TIME has reached out to the Trump and Biden campaigns for comment.
Trump has repeatedly been accused of inciting violence due to his rhetoric since his 2016 campaign for President. Federal officials previously warned Trump to refrain from rhetoric that could “incite violence or civil unrest.”
