Robert James Ritchie, the artist known professionally as Kid Rock, is being ridiculed online after wearing an American flag-themed outfit at the White House.
In a video posted to the official X account for The White House on Monday, Kid Rock appeared in the Oval Office alongside President Donald Trump as he signed an executive order on ticket scalping.
Yet despite the seemingly positive moment regarding a non-partisan issue, Kid Rock stole the attention with a bright red outfit adorned with rhinestones and American iconography.
Particularly, critics of Trump pointed to the fact that conservatives just recently chastised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for not wearing a suit during a visit to the White House.
“Why isn’t he wearing a suit?” one user asked. “Y’all are hypocrites.”
“You got to be kidding me,” another said. “This mf @KidRock went to the White House dressed like that. WHERE IS HIS SUIT?”
CBS News’ Jim LaPorta drove the point home by quoting Brian Glenn, the Chief White House Correspondent for the far-right outlet Real America’s Voice, who accused Zelensky of disrespecting Trump when he recently visited the U.S.
While Trump and his fans have long criticized Zelensky for his outfits, the president complimented him at the beginning of their most recent meeting for dressing more appropriately.
Others expressed doubt that anyone, including bots, would scalp Kid Rock tickets to begin with.
“If there’s one place on earth that doesn’t have a bot problem, it’s the queue for Kid Rock tickets,” an X user said.
As for the executive order itself, partisan debate over whether the action would have any effect on ticket pricing raged as well.
“Our President, and his new cartoon sidekick,” one user noted. “He’s signing an EO that will do absolutely NOTHING to crack down on anything. The #MAGA crowd will eat this up.”
“This seems good though?” another optimistically asked. “Something that will really help musicians and fans of music. And even the outfit is kinda good.”
As it stands, the executive order, according to a White House fact sheet, will direct Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pam Bondi to confirm that scalpers are complying with tax laws.
The Federal Trade Commission has also been tasked with aiding Bondi in enforcing competition laws.
Whether the executive order will reduce bots and ticket prices remains to be seen.
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