Donald Trump has been criticised by Joe Biden’s campaign team for sharing a video on social media featuring a truck bearing the image of the US president with his hands and feet tied together.
The Biden campaign team accused Mr Trump of “regularly inciting political violence” ahead of November’s election.
A spokesman for the Trump campaign said Democrats have been calling for “despicable violence” against Mr Trump.
Mr Trump posted the video on his social media site Truth Social on Friday.
According to the caption, it was filmed in Long Island, New York, on Thursday when the former president attended the wake of a New York City police officer who was killed during a traffic stop.
The video shows two passing trucks on the road, both covered in US flags and flags claiming support for the police.
The second truck was emblazoned with the words “Trump 2024”, and the rear of the vehicle features an image of Mr Biden with his hands and feet tied.
Mr Trump’s promotion of the video drew criticism from Mr Biden campaign’s team.
“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 6 January,” spokesman Michael Tyler said, referring to the storming of Congress by the former president’s supporters after he falsely claimed the 2020 election had been stolen from him.
But Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, responded: “That picture was on the back of a pickup truck that was travelling down the highway. Democrats and crazed lunatics have not only called for despicable violence against President Trump and his family, they are actually weaponising the justice system against him.”
The Republican presidential nominee faces four criminal cases, with an election subversion case and New York hush money case the most likely to be heard in court before the election on 5 November.
Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty in all the cases, and claimed he is being politically persecuted.
The row over the tailgate image is the latest in a series of heated exchanges between the two presidential candidates in the run-up to the polls.
In his bid to return to the White House, Mr Trump has ramped up his rhetoric, frequently referring to those convicted for their part in the riot at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 as “hostages”.
He also came under criticism for comments in Ohio earlier this month in which he warned of a “bloodbath” if he wasn’t elected. He made the reference after talking about foreign car imports and their economic impact.
The Biden campaign seized on the comments but Mr Trump accused them and the media of taking him out of context.
By BBC News
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