On August 4, former President Donald Trump, who was recently convicted on felony charges, appeared on controversial creator Adin Ross’s live stream on Kick.
During the 90-minute stream, which was done at Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, Ross gave Trump elaborate, expensive gifts. One was a Rolex, and the other was Cybertruck, the latter of which was wrapped in an infamous photo depicting Trump after the July assassination attempt at his rally.
Streamer Félix Lengyel, known as xQc, also appeared, donning a shirt of Donald Trump wearing grills.
Trump and Ross discussed everything from world leaders, to Young Thug, to the Beach Boys. Controversially, Trump also said that he would “fire” a Black journalist at ABC News who had challenged him in the past.
At its peak, the stream was viewed by 580,000 audience members. This is a figure that would be a flop for somewhere like Twitch. However, it is actually somewhat of a success for a platform like Kick. According to NBC, it’s the third most concurrently viewed live stream on Kick this year.
Who is Adin Ross? And why did Donald Trump appear on his stream?
Kick is known for having less strict content moderation policies than Twitch. It allows a number of controversial streamers banned on other platforms.
Ross himself was banned from Twitch for using slurs and displaying hate speech on his channel. He is also known for his frequent collaborations with Andrew Tate, an influencer known who is known for misogynistic rhetoric and is currently arrested on charges of rape and human trafficking in Romania.
Adin Ross is the second notable content creator to platform Donald Trump in recent months. This follows the former President’s appearance on Logan Paul’s podcast in July. Meanwhile, JD Vance, Trump’s confirmed running mate, appeared on the Nelk Boys’ podcast earlier in August.
Given that this comes after more than 100 creators were invited to the Republican National Convention, and Democratic Nominee Kamala Harris is eating up the internet with Brat and Coconut memes, it’s clear that Team Trump is pulling out all the stops to try and turn the tide on the youth vote.
