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Kid Rock’s flashy move in Trump’s Oval Office makes headlines

April 1, 2025 | | Print Article

President Donald Trump has been tackling all kinds of issues since his January 20 inauguration, and now he can add ticket scalping to the list.

Singer/songwriter Kid Rock donned an all-American outfit to join Trump for the signing of the executive order, which was crafted to protect consumers from “exploitative ticket scalping.” It also enforces the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act and ensures total price transparency during the ticket purchasing process. This includes the “secondary ticketing market” and promises to use enforcement methods to prevent “unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct” during such purchases.

“The president’s order also directs the attorney general and Treasury secretary to ensure that ticket scalpers are operating in full compliance with the Internal Revenue Code and other laws,” Fox News reported.

And in the interest of making sure things happen quickly and efficiently under his administration, Trump is putting a 180-day time limit on the Federal Trade Commission to deliver a report “summarizing the actions taken to address the issue of unfair practices in live concert and entertainment industry and will recommend additional regulations or legislation needed to protect consumers.”

Rock, who is quite familiar with the processes behind live entertainment, delivered some moving remarks as the president signed the order.

“It doesn’t matter your politics because- First of all, thank you Mr. President, because this has happened at lightning speed. I want to make sure Alina Habba gets her credit too, because I know she worked very hard on this,” Rock said. “But thank you for making this happen so quick. Anyone who’s bought a ticket in the last decade, maybe 20 years, no matter what your politics are, knows this is a conundrum.”

“You buy a ticket for 100 bucks, by the time you check out it’s $170. You don’t know what you’re getting charged for but more importantly, these bots, they come in to get all the good tickets to your favorite shows you want to go to,” he continued. “And then they’re relisted immediately for sometimes a 4- or 500% markup, and the artists don’t see any of that money, and ultimately I think this is a great first step. I would love down the road if there would be some legislation that we could actually put a cap on the resale of tickets. I’m a capitalist and a deregulation guy, but they’ve tried this in some places in Europe, and it seems to be the only thing that us as artists, be able to get the tickets in the hands of the fans at the prices we set.”

“I’ll be the first one to say, and I know the president doesn’t like when I say this, but I’m a little overpaid right now, so it’s kind of ridiculous,” the singer joked. “I would rather be a hero ot the working class people and have them be able to come attend my shows and give them a fair ticket price. I can’t control that right now so hopefully this is a step to really be able to make that happen.”

Sierra Marlee
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