Even in the hyper-partisan and ultra-theatrical final days of a nail-biter of a presidential campaign, there was something breathtakingly surreal about watching former President Donald Trump don an orange and yellow safety vest and hop onboard a Wisconsin garbage truck on Wednesday. Not that politicians don’t regularly pretend to be regular working folks. If only it had been that simple. No, he did it to illustrate just how deeply offended he is that his supporters had been likened to garbage by President Joe Biden (and, apparently by association, his actual election opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris).

Boy, if that isn’t the landfill calling the garbage can smelly.

Let’s review, shall we? Garbagegate 2024 started with the observation of a comedian performing at Trump’s recent Madison Square Garden rally that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage,” and when Biden was later asked about this bit of ugly racism, he said: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.” Biden and his staff attempted to correct this, explaining there was a missing apostrophe and he meant his “supporter’s” garbage meaning the comedian’s remark. Admittedly, it wasn’t well timed for Harris who is trying to campaign on unity but then Biden isn’t running for president and she distanced herself from him immediately.

What elevates this bizarre melodrama is that Trump spews this sort of rhetoric on an hourly basis. He didn’t bother to disavow Tony Hinchcliffe who insulted Puerto Rico in the first place. Trump (or even many of his allies) calling people garbage or “scum” or, lately, another four letter s-word unsuitable for a family publication, is par for the course. Indeed, it’s this consistently crass and insulting behavior that’s at the heart of this double standard. Everybody expects the Republican nominee to call people garbage, not so much his far more civil opponents or the sitting president. Is Vice President Harris being held to a much higher standard? Duh.

Have Americans noticed this? Do they care or is it just entertainment at this point? Imagine you are Trump’s running mate and one day (right after the failed Hinchcliffe gag) you have to question whether Americans have lost their ability to accept a joke. Then U.S. Sen. JD Vance has to quickly change gears and be outraged calling on Harris to return campaign donations from Sun Microsystems cofounder Vinod Khosla who posted on social media that garbage is an “understatement” when describing “MAGA extremists.”

All the insincerity-on-demand must be exhausting.