Donald Trump’s presidential campaign took an interesting detour today as the former president appeared in a livestream hosted by streamer Adin Ross. The livestream was hosted on Kick and, at its peak, had over 580,000 viewers.
Ross is a streamer known for courting controversy. At the height of his popularity on Twitch, he accumulated over 7 million followers. He’s hosted influencer Andrew Tate, who is currently facing charges in Romania for rape and human trafficking. He was repeatedly banned from Twitch for using racial slurs, before being permanently banned last year after featuring a chat stream where users spammed racial and antisemitic slurs. Ross migrated to the alternative streaming site Kick, where continued his antics which included hosting known white supremacist Nick Fuentes.
The stream with Trump may drive just as much controversy. At one point in the interview, Ross presented Trump with Rolex watch. Shortly after gifting him the watch, Ross brought up Fani Willis, a district attorney in the state of Georgia, who has filed an indictment against Trump for alleged election interference during the 2020 presidential election.
“I have a friend who’s currently being treated very unfair by [District Attorney Willis]. He’s a rapper named Young Thug,” Ross said during the livestream, referencing Williams’ racketeering case against the rapper. “I was just wondering if there’s a way that we could make sure he gets treated fair?”
Observers wondered if Ross was attempting to bribe Trump.
Donald Trump has a precedent for getting rappers out of sticky legal situations. At the end of his term in 2021, Trump pardoned the rapper Lil Wayne after he pled guilty to illegal gun possession. He also commuted the sentence for rapper Kodak Black, who was sentenced to 46 months after lying on federal forms in an attempt to purchase firearms.
Trump didn’t directly respond to Ross’ question, saying, “He’s gotta be treated fair.” As the details of the stream spread across social media, observers wondered if Ross was attempting to bribe Trump or whether accepting such an expensive gift constituted some kind of campaign finance violation.
The two continued the livestream with Trump offering one word comments on a list of celebrities and politicians, including Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. Finally, at the end of the stream, Ross presented Trump with another gift: a Tesla Cybertruck with a custom wrap featuring the now famous picture of Trump after he was shot at during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The stream ended with Ross and Trump streaming from the Cybertruck as “YMCA” played them out.
