A Republican former White House aide and conservative dating app founder is drawing backlash for saying he gives fake money to homeless people so they’ll get arrested.
“I always keep this fake Hollywood money in my car, so when a homeless person asks for money, then I give him like a fake five dollar bill,” McEntee said in a TikTok posted to his dating app’s official page.
“Then, when they go to use it, they get arrested. So I’m actually helping clean up the community. You know, getting them off the street,” McEntee finished, smirking into the camera.
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The former White House staffer—who was once Trump’s personal “body man” in charge of following him around and attending to his every need—is known for posting provocative, outlandish content on the TikTok page for his dating app, The Right Stuff. Although he wrote that it was “Just a joke” in the video’s caption, users and other observers were outraged at the gag.
“I can’t imagine being this awful as a human being,” Tara Setmayer, a moderate conservative who now works with the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, said in response. “What a cruel, indecent POS,” she added, using the acronym for “piece of shit.”
David Corn, the Washington bureau chief for the progressive Mother Jones magazine, voiced his disgust as well.
“How broken must you be to do this and think it’s funny?” Corn said.
Some commenters also pointed out the possible illegality of McEntee’s mean little prank.
“Congratulations on publicly confessing to multiple felonies!” one user commented.
U.S. law holds that a person who “knowingly and with intent to defraud” possesses or delivers counterfeit currency could be fined or imprisoned up to 20 years, but because McEntee claimed in his caption that the prank was “Just a joke,” he’s likely avoiding legal culpability.
