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During a livestream from Mar-a-Lago, streamer Adin Ross gave Donald Trump a Rolex and a Tesla Cybertruck wrapped in a photograph of the former president taken moments after a gunman shot him at a rally in Pennsylvania last month.
Ross repeatedly stated that he was giving them to the former president as “gifts.” While it’s unclear if Trump actually accepted the offering, it could exceed the maximum $3,300 limit on presidential campaign contributions under federal campaign finance law.
The 23-year-old streamer — with a mostly young male audience of more than 1.4 million Kick followers and 4.4 million YouTube subscribers — wore a white “Make America Great Again” hat and red tie as he heaped praise on the former president, who largely rambled through familiar grievances and disconnected thoughts on immigration, crime, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and cryptocurrency.
During the 90-minute stream from inside Trump’s Florida compound, as a small group of supporters behind a velvet rope held up “never surrender” signs and cheered along, Ross gave Trump a Rolex — the first of two “gifts” he offered to the former president.
At the end of the stream, Ross walked Trump outside and showed him a Cybertruck wrapped in images of the American flag and a photograph of the former president raising his fist as Secret Service agents surrounded him after a gunman fired on Trump and a rally crowd in Pennsylvania last month.
“Wow. That’s an Elon,” Trump said, referencing Tesla CEO Elon Musk. “That is beautiful. I think it’s incredible.”
He then suggested that he believes Google manipulated images from the shooting to put smiles on the Secret Service agents’ faces.
“You heard about that? It’s just terrible. It’s a little bit scary,” he said.
They sat inside the car and scrolled through a playlist, eventually landing on “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas and the Papas before moving to the Beach Boys “God Only Knows,” Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.”
An individual donor can contribute up to $3,300 to a campaign running for federal election, according to the Federal Election Commission.
“My boy said that’s such a big show,” Trump said during the stream as he held up an opened Rolex box towards the camera. “I don’t know what you’re doing but you really are respected.”
The Independent has requested comment from the Trump campaign.
Ross — a prolific livestreamer with ties to white nationalist Nick Fuentes and who has been repeatedly banned from streaming platform Twitch for homophobic slurs — had famously revealed plans from misogynist influencer Andrew Tate to flee to Romania. UK authorities had reportedly relied on Ross’s Kick stream to learn Tate’s whereabouts.
Ross called Trump a “brave man” and said the photo with his fist raised is “pretty bad ass.”
During the stream, Ross asked Trump for one-word descriptions while showing him a series of photographs of world leaders and celebrities. He called Musk “truly a genius,” Joe Rogan “a very interesting guy,” Kanye West “complicated,” and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “fake” but “she’s got a good spark” and “a lot of sizzle.”
He rambled for roughly 20 minutes while he was shown images of Xi Jinping (“powerful”), Justin Trudeau (“they say he’s the son of Fidel Castro”), Kim Jong Un (“now this man I really got along with well”) and Volodymyr Zelensky.
Rapper Young Thug — who is on trial in Georgia for racketeering as part of a criminal street gang — has been treated “unfairly” by Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis, according to Trump.
“You’ve gotta treat these patriots... and I hear Young Thung is being treated unfairly,” he said.
Trump avoided answering what amounted to a handful of questions from Ross, who largely nodded along and agreed with the former president as he pivoted from one subject to another in long-winded replies. He repeated his false claims about “20 million people” entering the country illegally and committing “migrant crime” (“it’s a new form of crime, and it’s a very violent crime”), and said he would “fire” the Black journalist who grilled him about his past inflammatory remarks during a conference in Chicago last week.
