Embattled GOP-endorsed Senate hopeful Royce White was caught in yet another embarrassing moment Tuesday when he blindly posted a map of “out of control” crime in Minneapolis that was actually a map of... the city’s public water fountains.
White, a 33-year-old retired NBA player who was recently accused of dropping $1,200 of campaign funds at a Miami strip club, appeared to have ripped the graphic from another account on X who had shared it sarcastically. It showed dozens of green dots, which indicated working fountains, and a handful of red and yellow dots, which signified those broken and being repaired across Minneapolis.
Apparently, White thought the dots indicated different levels of crime across the city and shared it with the caption, “Crime in Minneapolis... Out of control. Come on now. Refund the Police!”
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White’s gaffe was instantly called out, and he took the post down. Not long after, however, he made another post—this time attaching an actual crime map for Minneapolis—with the same caption.
Still, scores of Minneapolis residents had screenshotted White’s flub and criticized him for how quick he jumped at an opportunity to portray his home city and state in a bad light for his own political gain.
“Sorry, Royce,” responded an account, named Mpls Dad, under White’s new post. “You tweeted my map of Minneapolis drinking fountains. There’s no escaping this.”
White appeared incensed that he was duped, responding back to one account who poked fun at him, “Shut your mouth you blue wave cuck.”
Much of White’s campaign to unseat Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) in Minnesota has hinged around his claims that crime has become rampant in Minneapolis and St. Paul, whose metro areas accounts for more than 60 percent of Minnesota’s total population.
In reality, however, crime statistics provided by Minneapolis show that many crime metrics are down this year from 2023 and are below the city’s three-year average.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for White. Late last month, The Daily Beast broke the news that, after losing a primary in 2022, he allegedly jetted to Miami where he’s accused of doling out $1,200 in campaign dollars at Gold Rush Cabaret, an all-nude strip club.
That purchase was among dozens of outlandish—and previously unreported—payments unearthed from White’s 2022 Federal Election Commission filings.
Those payments aren’t just embarrassing for White as a GOP candidate running, in part, on family values—some also might be downright illegal, some experts said.
“We’re not talking about small stuff,” said Brendan Fischer, a specialist in campaign finance law and deputy director of Documented. “This takes us well outside the realm of FEC fines. This looks a lot like the kind of thing that people go to jail for.”
White has had an unusual road to Republican politics, coming on the heels of him being a former first-round NBA pick (who flopped relative to expectations) and, briefly, an outspoken BLM protester. Since joining the political limelight, however, White has drawn rebukes for anti-LGBTQ remarks and for unleashing profane attacks against his potential future incumbents online.
The latter of those attributes was on full display Wednesday after his water fountain-crime mixup.
“You’re a cuck. We’re leaving the plantation,” White tweeted at a Minnesota-based reporter, Christopher Ingraham, who pointed out the error. “You and your weird liberal buddies read it and weep.”
