The video played at the beginning of the tour Wednesday night at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana, USA Today reported from a TikTok video posted by a concertgoer.
“Hello, everyone, I love you all,” Trump says in the video that has generated more than 92,000 hearts and roughly 742,000 views. “You’re going to have a great time at the Kid Rock concert tonight. Quite frankly, he’s amazing. All of you in attendance are the true backbone of our great country: hard working, God-fearing, rock ‘n’ roll patriots.”
Trump, who has played golf alongside partner Kid Rock, joked the musician should stick to his career in entertainment. “One of the greatest entertainers of our time – not the best golfer, by any means,” Trump continued in the video. “His golf game could use a little work. But a great, great entertainer, and that’s why you’re there. “Let’s all continue to love one another, fight for our God-given freedoms, and most of all, let’s make America rock again!”
FROM CONTROVERSY TO COMPASSION: DANIEL SNYDER'S JAW-DROPPING GIFT LEAVES NATION IN AWE
Kid Rock then stormed the stage, opening with his new hit “We the People,” trashing COVID tyranny, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Black Lives Matter, Big Tech, fake news, and President Joe Biden. Like Trump, Kid Rock, a Michigan native named Robert James Ritchie, speaks in an unscripted way and stresses freedom and American exceptionalism via his music. Wednesday’s concert was the first of Kid Rock’s Bad Reputation tour. At the show’s outset, he played the politically-charged song “We the People,” which launches profane shots at Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Black Lives Matter movement, Facebook, Twitter, and the news media, and the “Let’s Go Brandon” phrase used to attack President Joe Biden.
WATCH: RFK JR. WILL REVERSE 80 YEARS OF FARM POLICY
“Trump speaks off the cuff, I understand what that’s like, sometimes you get it wrong,” the star told Carlson, saying he appreciates Trump for not being “contrived” or “scripted” like other politicians. “I’ve stood next to him in the White House with the prepared notes and watched him read like one sentence and then it’s like, ‘Let’s go.’ You’re like, this is awesome.”
JAMES CARVILLE'S CONTROVERSIAL CRITIQUE: IS WOKE CULTURE KILLING DEMOCRATIC SUPPORT?
Before the tour, Kid Rock slammed venues for requiring the COVID-19 vaccination or face masks and told fans on social media that he’d eliminated Buffalo, New York, Toronto and several other cities from his tour for taking pandemic precautions. “There’s been a lot of talk about vaccine mandates and venues, people saying, ‘I’m not going to that venue because there’s a vaccine mandate,’ and this, that and the other,” the rocker said. “If there are any of these venues ... they’re going to be gone by the time we get to your city.