With less than two weeks until the election, the candidates are in the final stretches of their campaigns, focusing on the all-important swing states whose support they need to get them over the required 270 electoral college votes.

And in a campaign stop in Arizona (November 15, 2024), Republican candidate Donald Trump had some of the most alarming words of the campaign yet.

Speaking at a rally of his supporters in Tempe on Thursday, the former president didn’t hold back on what he truly thought about the United States of America, likening it to “a garbage can for the world.” 

Trump said: “We’re a dumping ground. We’re like a garbage can for the world. That’s what’s happened.”

He continued: “Every time I come up and talk about what they’ve done to our country I get angry and angrier. First time I’ve ever said garbage can. But you know what? It’s a very accurate description.”

What was the context around these comments?

Trump made the comments in reference to illegal immigration, per CNN. It’s hardly the first time that Trump has used inflammatory language, but calling the country you want to be president of again a “garbage can” is, well, a rather unusual strategy.

Upon Trump’s assertion that America was “a garbage can for the world,” some in the crowd of his supporters jeered, yet it is unclear whether they were jeering Trump himself for calling their country a garbage can or whether they were jeering in agreement that America had indeed become a garbage can.

Of course, Trump’s inflammatory language is unlikely to cost or gain him votes given how polarizing this election cycle is. And it’s an election that is still too close to call: CNN’s current poll of polls has Kamala Harris slightly ahead of Trump at 49% of the vote to Trump’s 47%. However, that is within the three-point margin of error.

As for Harris, the vice president hasn’t responded directly to Trump’s latest comments, but her campaign’s official X account did post a clip of Trump’s comments with the caption “Trump: America is a garbage can.” The tweet is embedded above.