Kid Rock’s star-spangled jumpsuit he wore to the White House on Monday has sparked a debate online.
President Donald Trump invited the “All Summer Long” singer to Washington D.C. as the leader signed an executive order that he said will help put an end to ticket scalping.
According to the White House’s website, “The Order directs the Secretary of the Treasury [Scott Bessent] and Attorney General [Pam Bondi] to ensure that ticket scalpers are operating in full compliance with the Internal Revenue Code and other applicable law.”
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will also “ensure price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process, including the secondary ticketing market.”
Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, said per The Associated Press: “Anyone who’s bought a concert ticket in the last decade, maybe 20 years—no matter what your politics are—knows that it’s a conundrum.”
The 54-year-old sported a red, white and blue suit with an American flag on it and matching fedora to the Oval Office, which has caused a stir on X, formerly Twitter.
Newsweek reached out to Kid Rock’s representative via email for comment.
Trump’s critics are comparing the moment to when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky received backlash for not wearing a suit to the Oval Office in February, calling it hypocrisy. Trump’s supporters argue that a jumpsuit is a suit and Kid Rock is a musician, not a world leader.
Anti-Trump X account “Republicans Against Trump” took to the social-media platform to share a clip of Kid Rock’s White House appearance.
“All of a sudden, MAGA doesn’t care if someone’s not wearing a suit in the Oval Office. So weird how that works,” @RpsAgainstTrump wrote on Monday.
At the time of publication, the post racked up more than 1.3 million views and over 42,000 likes.
In response, Eric Daugherty—assistant news director at Florida’s Voice—said in a note: “Kid Rock isn’t a world leader begging us for billions of dollars in endless weapons and aid.”
“Remember when MAGA complained about President Zelensky not wearing a suit in the Oval Office?” Democrat Harry Sisson, who has almost 300,000 followers on X, asked in a comment. “This was what Kid Rock wore earlier and suddenly, MAGA is silent.”
“Kid Rock managed to put on a suit to visit the Oval Office. Why couldn’t Zelensky?” asked @magills_.
Trump, who is friends with Kid Rock, said that increased fees for concerts and other events has “gotten worse and worse with time.”
“You can buy a ticket for $100. By the time you check out, it’s $170,” Kid Rock said. “You don’t know what you’ve been charged for. But, more importantly, the bots, you know, they come in, they get all the good tickets to your favorite shows you want to go to, and then they’re relisted immediately for sometimes 400 to 500 percent markup.”
The five-time Grammy nominee said that he is “a little overpaid right now,” but said he “would rather be, you know, a hero to 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 make that happen,” Rock added.
When a reporter in the Oval Office asked Trump if he would ever wear Kid Rock’s suit jacket, the 78-year-old said: “I don’t know. I was thinking about doing it for tomorrow. We have a big event coming up, and I was thinking about doing it, but I’m not sure.”
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