Former president Donald Trump disseminated on social media on Friday an image of President Biden with his hands and feet tied and his mouth gagged, the latest example of the Republican candidate’s use of increasingly violent rhetoric and imagery this campaign season.

The image can be seen about halfway through a 20-second video that Trump posted on his Truth Social site. The post says it was recorded Thursday on Long Island, where Trump traveled this week to attend a wake for a recently killed police officer.

In the video, two trucks decorated with giant Trump flags and altered American flags are driving on a highway. On the tailgate door of one of the trucks is the image of Biden lying horizontally, bound and gagged.

Trump has a history of sharing and promoting violent images featuring his perceived enemies.

  • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    I don’t like saying this but I will forgo any of my liberal socialist ideals if Biden wants to do whatever it takes to get votes from republicans.

    Edit: Man, you people are sad little trolls. Go spend some time out in the IRL world. It’s genuinely depressing to see so many keyboard warriors spend their time regurgitating the talking points from the comfort of their echo chamber.

    To clarify my meaning, whether you agree with my politics or not, I think Biden has been a far better president than anyone could have hoped for (possibly the best I can recall) but I still have a philosophical disagreement with him when it comes to protections and equity for all. I believe there are some programs that the federal government should run to give all Americans the best opportunities (education, healthcare, housing, UBI, etc) and I believe that taking excessive capitalist gains from the ultra wealthy is a small drop in the bucket to promote some fairness. I will lean back on these philosophical ideas which I’ve had little hope of a centrist of adopting and encourage him to lean further right if that means he can take some votes away from the inarguably worst president in modern times (yes, worse than Regan).

    If you think Trump should be the leader of the US, that he some how represents or understands democracy, that he cares about you or the United States, that he’s a good president or person, or is better than Biden in any regard, you and I are not existing in the same solar system so there’s no point in arguing. I don’t have anything against Republicans but the extreme and religious conservatives and the MAGA cult do not align with the freedoms dreamed by our founders or promised in the Constitution of the US.

    • ALQ@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I would also not be opposed to Biden testing his own Presidential Immunity™ on Trump and his cronies, and I hate that I feel that way.

        • NattyNatty2x4@beehaw.org
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          8 months ago

          Well if it makes you feel any better, not forgoing idealism in the face of reality would help trump win. So the realism of voting for biden and getting him to win is the best possible outcome, as far as getting as close to your ideals as possible is concerned.

    • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      Translation: Genocide is OK with me, as long as I’m not the recipient of it.

    • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      That’s just polite fascism though? Oh! You are a liberal, got it.

        • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          We’re trying to be outraged here and fit this into the narrative. You shall be down voted for any facts that force us to face the fact that the reason for our outrage is not rooted in reality.

      • poweruser@lemmy.sdf.org
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        8 months ago

        He doesn’t appear to be gagged in this pic. Maybe they’re referring to a different violent image

      • chingadera@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I like how even in this, they’re shitty at binding someone. They can’t even pretend to do things correctly.

        • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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          8 months ago

          Haha, that’s a good point. This is the January 6th gallows all over again… These people are the edgy punisher logo manifest.

          All those stupid thin blue line flags, too… Who the fuck believes that lie after Uvalde?

      • Guntrigger
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        8 months ago

        Is that actually painted on someone’s truck? I kinda hope so because it’s so shoddy. The perspective doesn’t even line up for the truck bed.

        • Breezy@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Its a wrap. And they’re real. Shouldnt be allowed but here we are. Had anyone had something like this with bush bound and gagged after 2001 they wouldve been arrested and tried in a heartbeat.

        • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          It’s a decal that can be bought for like $50. There are a bunch of different kinds of them, some with women tied up, deer, various politicians, Sasquatch, Lion’s etc. It’s the most mundane shit which is why liberals are clutching their pearls over it.

          • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I’ve seen people get pulled over for a fake hand holding the tailgate edge around Halloween. Tied up people should absolutely get you pulled over and checked on a regular basis just because you don’t want to be the guy that missed a potential kidnapping.

            • arin@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Guess which side the fascist cops are on? The truck owner’s likely a family member of the cop

              • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                If they recognize who’s in the picture. My point isn’t that they’ll get in trouble. My point is that you’re going to get pulled over a lot because cops won’t want to miss a potential kidnapping.

          • Guntrigger
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            8 months ago

            I never thought I’d see the claim that pretending to have a woman tied up in the back of your truck is some “mundane shit”.

            Same energy as standing at airport security yelling “I have a gun” and pulling out a replica.

    • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      All you have to do is Google “Biden Tailgate Wrap”. There are many variations for sale all over the internet. $50 to $70.

      Trump deserves some blame for sharing it, but the real blame needs to be on the people producing and using it.

      • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Hmmm, people producing it deserve blame, but it’s not like you or me sharing a pic, this is a candidate for president of the United States posting it about his political rival. I think that’s a worse offense, no matter how common they might be.

      • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        Fortunately in America such images are protected speech even if liberals and fascists, but I repeat myself get upset about them. So any “blame” is literally just the speaker virtue signaling and isn’t something that needs to be considered beyond a simple throw away comment plus a “lol.”

  • Dramaking37@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Interestingly, Donald Trump’s argument about presidential immunity suggests that Biden could do that to him and it legally okay to do so.

  • LordCrom@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Anyone else that did this would get visited by very angry men in dark suits.

    I suppose if it’s ok for Trump to do, then I could post an image of Trump bound and gagged?

    • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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      8 months ago

      Kathy Griffin and at least a couple of art galleries have depicted Trump decapitations, during his presidency. They all got some shit publicly because of it (mostly upset right wingers) but no one was arrested or subjected to anything by the government, no matter how much said angry right wingers asked.

      This is just the party flipped version of the same sort of thing. Watching just how many people start pearl clutching at only one of these is kinda amusing.

      • Soleos@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I think it’s one thing for a private citizen to do this, but it would be another thing for a sitting/former president running for election to do the same

        • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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          8 months ago

          Check the original video he posted. He literally filmed some dick-replacement giant pickups covered in pro-police, pro-Trump, anti-Biden shit, and one of them had this commercially available tailgate decal on it of Biden bound and gagged.

          It’s in bad taste, sure but it’s not something you can honestly treat the way the media is treating this. It’s click bait.

          • Soleos@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            How would you describe the media is treating it and how should the media be treating presidents who share such imagery regardless of party?

      • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Its not the same sort of thing. Kathy whoever the fuck doesn’t have friends who put people in oil drums, and AFAIK has never attempted a fascist coup.

        If you wanted to hang a bloody hyper realistic effigy of Jojo burning in a tree, your statement would be true (except for the tree. be nicer to trees)

  • Yerbouti@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Hexbear users are always willing to defend far-right activists in some twisted logic. You people should merge with the proud boys, they hate libs too.

        • OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          Fascist threatens liberal president, liberals in power scream “someone has to do something about this!” And then do nothing

          Trump could be shot for treason, in an open and shut way(stealing nuclear secrets) but liberals aren’t going to do it, because for structural reasons liberals are incapable of opposing fascism.

          (Liberal in this case is used the normal way, and not the “liberal= left wing” way)

            • OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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              8 months ago

              Oh wow, transphobia and a suicide joke from someone who hates hexbear, how surprising.

              Also it isnt a superiority complex to have a basic understanding of history.

              I would love to be proven wrong, it would be interesting from a historical perspective due to liberals previous inability to fight fascism, and also I wouldn’t end up in a concentration camp for being trans, and communist, and Jewish. But until I’m proven wrong I’ll keep being a communist, because communism has the best antifascist record and I dont want to get gassed.

              • marcie (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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                8 months ago

                so far this site seems like an absolute shithole, mostly because the admins and mods seem to be completely disinterested in permanently banning bigoted users. instead they seem to enjoy wasting their time removing comments that are uncivil to these repeatedly bigoted people.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    If anyone else had done that, the Secret Service would be after them. But since it’s Donald Trump, the Secret Service protects him.

    • cjoll4@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      The image he shared was one that had already been circulating for months. Can you find an example of the Secret Service going after anyone else who retweeted it? Did they even go after the person driving the vehicle in the picture, or the company that produces the tailgate wrap?

      Pretty sure this is protected free speech. Nobody in their right mind would see this as a credible threat to kidnap Joe Biden; it’s just a humorous way of showing displeasure toward a politician.

      • dhork@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        If you’re so sure, you should post it on all of your Social Media accounts, and see what happens…

        • Sylver@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I see multiple of these tailgate wraps in town on the back of trucks in my area. People in this area share and distribute MUCH WORSE SHIT than this mild piece of artistic garbage… I’m not saying it’s right, but it is protected speech.

          Though we should hold running presidential candidates to a higher standard, and perceive this threat as it is.

  • pyre@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    gagged huh? that says something, coming from a man who routinely gets gag orders.

  • Yerbouti@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Lol, my comment commenting about Hexbear users got remove by mod. What’s up mod? They get to be removed about everyone they disagree with, but we can’t criticize them?

    • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      the comment that got removed was

      Hexbear users are always willing to defend far-right activists in some twisted logic. You people should merge with the proud boys, they hate libs too.

      for the reason “trolling”.

      your comment was directly in response to the OP, so there’s no context to consider.

      sounds like another common .ml moderator W to me.