It seems when you ask Donald Trump’s supporters what kind of statement they’re trying to make by wearing garbage bags, you get a dumpster fire of conflicting answers.
On Sunday, The Good Liars — a political comedy duo consisting of Jason Selvig and Davram Stiefler — published a short clip on X, formerly Twitter, of Stiefler interviewing two Trump supporters at a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The Trump supporters Stiefler spoke to were wearing black garbage bags decorated with American flags that boasted the words “Proud to be Trump’s Garbage.”
The proclamation on the garbage bags refers to President Joe Biden seemingly calling Trump supporters “garbage” during an interview with Voto Latino last week.
Biden’s remark came in response to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s hate-fueled set at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in Manhattan days prior in which Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico an “island of garbage” and made other racist and antisemitic remarks.
The White House later said that Biden was calling the underlying rhetoric at Trump’s rally “garbage” rather than his supporters, but Trump and his campaign decided to capitalize on the comment.
And although Vice President Kamala Harris is Trump’s actual adversary in the 2024 presidential race — and said as recently as Monday that she wants to be “a president for all” — Trump added fuel to the fire last week by showing up for a photo-op in a garbage truck.
Now Trump’s supporters have decided to apparently “own” Biden’s “garbage” label and dress in trash bags as a signifier of their loyalty.
“The current so-called president of the United States called Trump supporters garbage,” a man decked out in a trash bag explained to Stiefler in the Good Liar’s clip.
“So we showed up as garbage!” a similarly costumed woman said proudly.
“And so, can you tell me how wearing the garbage bag proves that you are not garbage?” Stiefler asked.
In response to his question, the woman spun around excitedly to show the message on the back of her bag that read, “Biden calls us garbage, Trump calls us Americans.”
“Right, but you’re dressed as Biden defined you,” Stiefler pointed out. “Not as Trump defined you.”
This seemed to stump the woman, who responded by nervously laughing and stammering, “Well … .”
“Well, I think … we’re taking it as a joke at this point,” the male Trump supporter finally responded.
“Like it would make sense if you were wearing an American flag, and you said, ‘Biden calls us garbage, and Trump calls us Americans,’” Stiefler said.
“I’m confused,” the woman admitted before the clip ends.
In the full video of Stiefler’s interviews at the Greensboro rally published to The Good Liar’s YouTube account Sunday, other Trump supporters offered conflicting reasons for donning trash liners.
“I’m proud to be trash if it’s under Mr. Trump. Absolutely,” one woman told Stiefler.
“It’s a statement,” the woman added later about her plastic ensemble. “It doesn’t prove that I’m not trash, it doesn’t prove that I am. But it makes the statement that if you’re going to call me trash because of what I believe in, then I’m going to stand by what I believe in, no matter what you say to me.”
“What if Joe Biden would’ve been like, ‘Trump supporters — they hit their fingers with hammers,’” Stiefler asked.
“Then I would probably get a plastic hammer,” the woman responded with a laugh.
In an interview with another male Trump supporter — who said the trash bag he was wearing communicated that “We are deplorables, we’re garbage, we’re anything they want, but what we are as Americans, we’re Trump people” — Stiefler offered a similarly goofy scenario.
“What if Joe Biden said, ‘You know, Trump supporters — they’ll leave a glass of milk on the counter for like, six hours until it curdles and then they’ll chug it and they’ll have tummy troubles all day.’ Would you be doing that?” Stiefler asked.
“That’s silly,” the man responded.
“It is a silly question,” Stiefler admitted.
“It is a silly question,” the man reiterated.
But Stiefler had a zinger for this man. “But, the garbage bag. Not silly?”