Trump Accidentally Lets A Major Insecurity Slip During Garbage Truck Stunt

With mere days left until Election Day, the presidential race is certainly heating up. Before his campaign rally on Wednesday, former President Donald Trump rode around in a "Trump 2024" branded garbage truck. This was another move in the political brawl surrounding the word "garbage." Yet, there was more to Trump's ride and coordinating ensemble than meets the eye. And, it shows his insecurities.

"How do you like my garbage truck? This truck is in honor of Kamala [Harris] and Joe Biden," Trump said while riding in the truck and sporting a reflective vest (via CNN). Yet, rather than trading in his vest for a suit jacket when he hit the rally stage, he continued to sport his sanitation worker attire over his collared shirt and tie. For anyone who may have been confused about why Trump was still wearing the orange vest onstage, the second-time presidential hopeful explained it to the crowd. Trump rambled a bit about how his team told him he should keep the vest on. He claimed that he initially refused and was careful to make a note of just how many people were attending his rally, saying that he wouldn't wear the vest onstage, because "I got 25,000 people standing outside. I got all these people here" per Newsweek. However, Trump's concern about crowd size wasn't the only insecurity he mentioned. He also said that he agreed to wear the vest onstage when he was told it made him look thinner.

According to Donald Trump, "When they said I looked thinner, I said, 'In that case, I'll wear it on stage. I may never wear a blue jacket again ... I may go in this.' They said that ... that was the key, 'Sir. You look thinner.'" The notion that looking thinner is a motivator for Trump doesn't come as a surprise. After all, his height and weight have long been a topic of discussion, as his own claims about his body measurements have changed. Notably, when his famous mugshot was taken at an Atlanta, Georgia, jail in 2023, his booking record listed him as 6'3" and 215 lbs. The former president reportedly supplied these numbers, himself, and they were widely believed to be false. So, if Trump was willing to lie about his weight in that context, then he would surely be willing to speak at a campaign rally in a slimming sanitation worker vest.

While looking a bit thinner than he normally does may have been a welcome side effect of the garbage vest stunt, it certainly wasn't the original point. Trump's latest rally comes after the word "garbage" has been thrown around quite a bit. Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico "a floating island of garbage" following Trump's Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday, per BBC. Then, in a Zoom call on Tuesday, Joe Biden fired back, saying, "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters," Newsweek reported.