Former President Donald Trump sat down this week with young, popular influencer Adin Ross at Mar-a-Lago for a wide-ranging interview.
Lasting 1.5 hours, the interview began with Ross gifting the former president a Rolex watch, a Diet Coke, and a Tesla cybertruck.
Trump told Ross that his youngest son, Barron, is a huge fan.
“My son Barron says hello,” the former president said. “He’s a great young guy but he’s a big fan of yours. My son’s told me about you. He said ‘Dad, he’s really big.'”
Ross is indeed big, commanding an audience of millions of mostly young, male viewers.
President Trump and Adin Ross are now just listening to music in a cybertruck wrapped with a picture of him raising his fist after the assassination attempt.
So awesome pic.twitter.com/Jd9Fzgt3Qi
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 5, 2024
Trump added that Barron had convinced him to participate in the interview precisely so he could reach younger folks.
“I love having a young audience … it’s about the American dream,” he said. “Right now, you don’t have the American dream.”
Moving on, the two spoke about the presidential race, with Trump arguing that all of Vice President Kamala Harris’s potential VP picks are more accomplished than her.
“All of the people she’s looking at are much better than her,” he said. “I think virtually every one of them is considered better, smatter, would be a better president than her.”
“Look she couldn’t even pass her law exam. She couldn’t pass her bar exam. She thought she’d never be able to pass it. And this is who we have running our country. It’s a shame,” he added.
He went on to slam her record.
“She’s ultra-left, ultra-radical,” he said. “She was attorney general of California. She destroyed California. Her policies have destroyed California. San Francisco was the best city in our country 20 years ago. Her policies, when she was the district attorney, have destroyed San Francisco.”
Make America Great Again pic.twitter.com/8wnX5VtrTO
— adin (@adinross) August 5, 2024
Later during the interview, Ross played a game where he showed Trump pictures of people and then had the former president reply with a one-word response.
“She’s fake,” he said when Ross showed him a picture of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “But she knows it. She’s got a thing going. It’s a good thing for her. But there’s a certain something she’s got. She’s got a good spark. It’s pretty amazing, actually. She has got a lot of sizzle.”
It’s true that she’s very popular despite being a complete buffoon.
Trump then compared Ocasio-Cortez to former Argentinian First Lady Evita Peron, who too was a radical leftist.
The former president continued by recalling seeing Ocasio-Cortez campaigning on television against then-incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley.
“I said he better be careful,” Trump recalled. “And she took him out, so you know, I give her credit.”
The former president also had praise for UFC founder Dana White, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and podcaster Joe Rogan.
At one point during the interview, Trump suggested to Ross that “maybe someday you’ll be president.”
“I don’t know about that,” Ross laughed in response. “I’ll leave it to Barron maybe one day.”
At one point in time, the two men burst into a dance routine:
Adin Ross and Trump is a complete vibe shift
580K LIVE viewers!?
For perspective this is more than *any* daytime cable TV show + MUCH younger demo
No longer are our leaders and information beholden to the dinosaur media
Bravo to @adinross
Also, Trump looked cool doing it ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/dPuBJjk5wU
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 5, 2024
The only thing that remains unclear is how Trump plans to handle the gifts.
“Per Tesla’s website, a base model Cybertruck has a sticker price of $60,990, with high-end trims topping $100,000,” the New York Times noted. “A customized wrap — the printed vinyl sticker covering every exterior surface of the vehicle — starts around $4,000. Rolex watches typically start at $5,000.”
“All of those price tags far exceed the federal limit on individual campaign contributions, which is $3,300 per election cycle, in cash or in-kind — making Mr. Ross’ show of generosity a potential campaign finance violation,” according to the Times.
Speaking with the Times, Brendan Fischer, a campaign finance expert who is deputy executive director at Documented, a watchdog group, raised concerns.
“I would expect that once Trump gets off the livestream and talks to his lawyers, he’ll be advised that he can’t accept these gifts and will have to turn them down or give them to charity,” he said. “What other conclusion can you come to other than that this is an illegal and excessive campaign contribution?”
- GOP senator says ‘reckless restart’ of Biden-Harris immigration program riddled with fraud - September 18, 2024
- Israel’s pager explosives called ‘ingenious,’ but how long until foes start blowing up our iPhones? - September 18, 2024
- AG looks at ‘creative’ way to handle Haitian migrant crisis: ‘It could happen to any town in America’ - September 18, 2024
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.