Donald Trump has boarded a garbage truck as he hit back at comments by US President Joe Biden about his supporters.
The former US president walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name in Green Bay, Wisconsin, across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of the white garbage truck that also carried his name.
He has used Biden's remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
"How do you like my garbage truck?" Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest. "This is in honour of Kamala and Joe Biden."
Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage".
Trump seized on a comment Biden made on a call that "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters".
The president tried to clarify the comment afterwards, saying he had intended to say Trump's demonisation of Latinos was unconscionable.
Earlier Trump said that Biden revealed the disdain Democratic leaders feel towards Trump's supporters.
"You can't lead America if you don't love Americans, and you can't be president if you hate the American people," Trump said in North Carolina, one of the largest of the seven swing states up for grabs in Tuesday's US presidential election.
Harris, meanwhile, urged voters in the same state to "turn the page" on Trump, who she said was focused on his own grievances, rather than Americans' needs.
"If he is elected, on Day One Donald Trump will walk into that office with an enemies list. When I am elected, I will walk in with a to-do list," she said.
Harris held rallies in a trio of battleground states as part of a blitz in the closing week of the election, with stops in Raleigh, North Carolina; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Madison, Wisconsin.
She wrapped up her rally in Wisconsin with a direct message to first-time voters, who Democrats see as crucial to their path to victory next week.
"Your vote is your voice, and your voice is your power."
The race has tightened in its final weeks, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Harris leading Trump by just 44 per cent to 43 per cent among registered voters nationally, well within the poll's margin of error. Other opinion polls show tight margins in the seven battleground states that will decide the November 5 election.
Tensions are running high. Election workers in competitive states are bracing for violence, and authorities in Florida arrested a man for menacing voters with a machete.
Trump continues to falsely claim that his 2020 loss to Biden was the result of widespread fraud and has signalled that he will challenge a 2024 defeat if he deems it unfair, having filed along with supporters a wave of lawsuits this year objecting to various election rules around the country.
Since his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump has built broad appeal with working-class white Americans, while Democrats have consolidated their support among more affluent, college-educated voters. Control of the White House and Congress has flipped back and forth in recent elections, allowing neither party to claim control over both branches of government for long.
The duelling rallies in North Carolina highlighted the crucial role the southern state might play in the election. It was the only battleground state to back Trump in 2020. It last voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in 2008 though it has had a Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, since 2017.
Trump leads Harris by just one percentage point in the state, according to a polling average by FiveThirtyEight.
with AP and PA
