Source: @Liutauras_ / Twitter
Donald Trump appeared on a livestream hosted by Adin Ross to boost his presidential campaign, but social media wasn’t too impressed.
On Monday (August 5), Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had a unique event on his campaign schedule. He appeared as the special guest on a live stream hosted by streamer Adin Ross on the Kick platform, which reportedly drew an audience of over 580,000. “Today is going to be the most important stream I’ve ever done,” he said to start the interview, which was held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump walked in to 50 Cent’s hit “Many Men”, which he adopted after the thwarted attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania last month. Ross sported a “Make America Great Again” hat as he asked Trump various softball questions on supposed liberal bias in schools (“Even the teachers have been brainwashed, Trump said) to allowing Trump to give one-word reactions to images of politicians such as California Governor Gavin Newsome (who Trump called “New-scum”) to Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The interview, which lasted 90 minutes, also featured Trump repeating his attacks on Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris including his racist comments about her Black and Indian heritage. Trump also praised Ross’ deferential treatment of him, and said that his youngest son Barron was a “big fan”. Ross also brought up the racketeering case against Young Thug and asked if there was a way he could be treated fairly. “He’s gotta be treated fair,” Trump replied. Ross then gave Trump a Rolex watch valued at $300,000. The two then went outside as Ross gifted Trump a Tesla Cybertruck with a custom wrap featuring the photo of Trump after he was shot at during the Butler rally.
Ross has a highly controversial history that includes platforming white supremacist Nick Fuentes and being buddies with alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate. The 23-year-old followed Tate to the Kick platform after being banned from Twitch for using homophobic slurs in addition to racist and anti-Semitic slurs (Ross is Jewish) and showing pornographic images and videos during his streams. Social media users derided Ross’ interview, noting he hadn’t reached the 1 million viewers he claimed it would get. They also questioned his gifts to Trump, speculating he might’ve violated campaign finance rules.
“The evidence suggests that Ross made or sought to make an illegal contribution, so he could face civil penalties,” said campaign watchdog Brendan Fisher.
Check out more reactions to the interview below.