MAGA singer Kid Rock had social media users scratching their heads after he appeared to give surprising advice to President-elect Donald Trump's supporters not to "gloat" following Trump's election win last Tuesday.
The video opens with a slate labeling it as a “Kid Rock vs. Bob Ritchie” reaction, highlighting the contrast between the performer’s stage persona and his real name.
Kid Rock steps out in a red tracksuit, sports a customized MAGA hat, smokes a cigar, drops the mic, grabs his crotch, and flips off the camera—all without uttering a word.
In contrast, Bob Ritchie, dressed in shorts and a simple T-shirt, takes a more reserved approach, encouraging his fans not to gloat:
"Let me convey to my family, friends, and supporters that now is not the time to gloat."
"We must remember that most of our left-leaning friends are good people who want the same things in life as we do but simply think differently on how to get there. It is now time to be the bigger man, to extend an olive branch, and unite all reasonable people of this great nation.”
"God has blessed America and together with President Trump we will make America great again."
It was a surprisingly humble message to a cohort who have spent the past week doing their fair share of gloating, in sometimes truly ugly ways.
But the video's over-the-top faux patriotism mixed with Christian nationalism ending with an oh-so-predictable self-promotion of his concert tour marked it as more Kid Rock than Bob Ritchie in the end.
Shocking exactly no one, Kid Rock's MAGA fans ate this propaganda up.
But others were plain old weirded out—and not feeling it at all.
Kid Rock's video is a far cry from his reaction over the summer after Trump survived an assassination attempt—the first of two during the election cycle—when a shooter opened fire at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Shortly afterward, he shared a video declaring that if "You f**k with Trump, you f**k with me."
In May, Rolling Stone published a profile on Kid Rock that pointed out how extensively the rocker has "wrapped himself in all things Trump and become as much a fixture of the MAGA Cinematic Universe as Steve Bannon, Mike Lindell, or Kari Lake."
At one point, he described Trump to reporter David Peisner as "one of my besties," though when he placed a call to Trump's cellphone mid-interview, Trump didn't pick up."
Kid Rock was among the first prominent musicians to declare their support for Trump. In 2016, he told Rolling Stone that he was "digging Donald Trump," particularly his campaign, which he referred to as "entertaining as s**t."
@GregAbbott_TX/X
