Cuban calls Trump's 'garbage can' remarks 'insulting' to America

Businessman Mark Cuban called former President Trump’s “garbage can” remarks about the country “insulting” to America, going after the Republican nominee's policy proposals and saying he has “slowed down.”

"I get mad. I get pissed off. I mean, this is, this is our country. It's beautiful. We love it. I'm still part of the older generation. Love it, or leave it,” Cuban, one of Harris’s most prominent campaign surrogates, said during his Friday night appearance on CNN’s “The Source" about Trump's remarks. "And to say that we've become the garbage can is insulting to every single American."

Cuban’s comment to CNN host Kaitlan Collins came after Trump compared America to a “garbage can for the world” during a campaign stop in Arizona earlier this week while discussing immigration.

“We’re a dumping ground,” Trump said in Tempe. “We’re like a garbage can for the world. That’s what’s happened. That’s what’s happened to our — we’re like a garbage can."

Trump, who has utilized disparaging language to describe immigrants, vowed to implement mass deportations of illegal immigrants if he is elected again in November.

The Hill has reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment.

Cuban, who said he had not spoken to the Republican nominee since he left the White House four years ago, argued that Trump has changed since Cuban met him two decades ago.

“He slowed down. There's no question about it. Having known him for 25 years, early on, in the early 2000s you could have a legitimate conversation with him. It's just now, it's talking point, talking point, talking point,” Cuban said on Friday.

“You can see he's he's declined. It's just reality," he added.

Collins then asked Cuban if voters see a change too.

“No, not at all. Because Trump never is intellectual about anything,” he said in response. “You don't ever think of Donald Trump and think, ‘Wow, that was really an in-depth conversation he had with somebody.’ You don't think of Donald Trump and say that was really nuanced in what he had to say about this position or his policy. You don't hear him talk in-depth about policies at all.”

The billionaire entrepreneur has assisted the Harris campaign in messaging their economic agenda and has appeared with the vice president on the campaign trail.

On CNN on Friday, Cuban criticized Trump’s tariff proposals and said the former president “doesn't care for hard-working Americans.”

“If he wins, you're looking at your Christmas presents, 60 percent or more of the things you buy were made in China,” Cuban said. “Now, all of a sudden they cost 60 percent more."

"When they cost 60 percent more, you have to make decisions, ‘What am I not going to get my kids? What am I not going to get my family? What am I not going to get my friends?," he continued, adding that it hurts businesses as well.

Regardless, voters still trust Trump more on the issue of the economy. But Cuban argued that Harris's late start in the race has hindered voters from getting to know her policy plans.

"She just hasn't had enough time,” Cuban said.