Fact Check: Were MAGA Fans Plastered on Garbage Cans in NYC?

The fallout from Joe Biden appearing to refer to Donald Trump supporters as “garbage” has continued, with the Republican presidential candidate staging a publicity stunt in a garbage truck and the White House dragged into a dispute over a transcript of Biden’s words.
Biden faced backlash after a clip of his call Tuesday with Voto Latino was circulated online, during which the president was heard saying, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters—his—his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
Among the commentary that sprang from Biden’s comment, one viral social media post made it appear New York propagandists had seized on the president’s words, plastering garbage cans with pictures of MAGA supporters for an ad encouraging locals to keep the streets clean.
The Claim
A post on X, formerly Twitter, by Ian Miles Cheong on October 30, 2024, said, “This is New York City. Someone installed these posters. Disgusting.”
The post included a photo of two posters on trash cans, depicting MAGA supporters obscured with a red slash, with the slogan “Keep NYC Trash Free.”
The Facts
While the poster is real, it has nothing to do with Biden’s recent comments and was not created during the 2024 election cycle.
The posters were seen in New York in October 2018.
They were attributed to street artist Winston Tseng. Although Tseng posted photos of the bins on his Instagram page, he initially denied he was behind them, telling NYC news station PIX 11: “For the record, I didn’t create or put up these posters. But if I did, I wouldn’t want people to take them so seriously since they’re meant to reflect certain parts of our society and not meant to generalize beyond those.
“I’d just want the intended audience of my fellow ‘classist elitist New Yorkers’ to hopefully be entertained by the ‘unhelpful, tone-deaf message’ as they go about their day in this trash-filled liberal bubble.”
He later told the blog Brooklyn Street Art they were his posters. The same photos shared this week were posted on Tseng’s website in 2018.
In a statement to PIX 11 at the time, the New York City Department of Sanitation said it had not created the posters and did not “condone unlawful defacement of City litter baskets or public property.”
Cheong, who reposted the pictures on X, repeatedly shares misleading and false information on social media, some of which Newsweek has investigated.
While the posters are not fake, posting photos without the date or context creates the impression they may have appeared in response to Joe Biden’s “garbage” commentary.
The Ruling
Misleading Material.
Although the posters are real, they were not posted recently or during the 2024 election cycle. They were attached to New York City bins in 2018. The New York City Department of Sanitation was not associated with them. Street artist Winston Tseng later admitted they were his after an initial denial.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team