
Show caption Kid Rock at the White House in 2018. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA Kid Rock Kid Rock says Donald Trump sought his advice on North Korea and Islamic State Musician, who visited White House in 2017 with Ted Nugent and Sarah Palin, said Iām like, āAm I supposed to be in on this shit?ā Martin Pengelly @MartinPengelly Tue 22 Mar 2022 11.34 GMT Share on Facebook
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The rapper Kid Rock said Donald Trump once asked him for advice about US policy on Islamic State and North Korea.
In an interview with the Fox News host Tucker Carlson broadcast on Monday night, the musician also discussed ācancel cultureā ā claiming to be āuncancelableā ā and the coronavirus pandemic.
On the latter, referring to Joe Bidenās chief medical adviser, he said: āFuck Fauci.ā
āYou speak for many when you say that,ā Carlson answered.
Because of his role in the federal response to a pandemic which has killed more than 972,000 in the US, Fauci, 81, has faced threats to his security and that of his family.
Kid Rock has described himself, to the Guardian, as ādefinitely a Republican on fiscal issues and the military, but I lean to the middle on social issuesā.
āI am no fan of abortion,ā he said, ābut itās not up to a man to tell a woman what to do. As an ordained minister I donāt look forward to marrying gay people, but Iām not opposed to it.ā
He also said he āplayed Barack Obamaās inauguration [in 2009] even though I didnāt vote for him. I didnāt agree with his policies, but there was an exciting sense of change in the air. That promise hasnāt been fulfilled ā the country is more divided than ever.ā
In the aftermath of the Trump presidency, such judgments have been borne out. Carlson, Kid Rockās interlocutor on Monday, has emerged as a particularly divisive primetime presence.
In a friendly interview timed for the release of a new album ā Kid Rock wearing a āWe the Peopleā cap, Carlson in V-neck sweater and khakis ā the subject turned to the musicianās friendship with Trump.
In a famous picture from 2017, the rapper was shown in the Oval Office, behind the Resolute Desk, with Trump, the rock musician Ted Nugent and Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and vice-presidential nominee. Palin said she invited the rightwing rockers ābecause Jesus was bookedā.
āI was there with [Trump] one day when he ended the caliphate,ā Kid Rock, 51 and born Robert Ritchie, told Carlson in reference to US efforts against the Islamic State.
āHe wanted to put out a tweet ⦠I donāt like to speak out of school. I hope Iām not. But ⦠the tweet was, and Iām paraphrasing, but itās like, you know, āIf you ever joined the caliphate, you know, trying to do this, youāre going to be dead.ā
āHe goes, āWhat do you think?ā [I said] āAwesome. I canāt add any better.ā But then it comes out and itās ⦠reworded and more political, to look politically correct. And just, ābe afraidā.ā
He also said he and Trump were once ālooking at maps. Iām like, you know, like, āAm I supposed to be in on this shit?ā Like I make dirty records sometimes. I do.
āāWhat do you think we should do about North Korea?ā Iām like, āWhat? I donāt think Iām qualified to answer this.āā
In four years in office, Trump both threatened and met with the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un. No progress was made in ending the US standoff with the nuclear-armed dictator.
Some online critics wondered whether Trump really asked Kid Rock what to do about North Korea.
But after Kid Rockās White House visit with Nugent and Palin in 2017, Nugent told the New York Times the group discussed āāhealth, fitness, food, rockānāroll, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, secure borders, the history of the United States, guns, bullets, bows and arrows, North Korea, Russia and a half-dozen other issuesā.
Speaking to Carlson, Kid Rock also praised Trump for speaking āoff the cuffā.
āSee now, if you watch a Joe Biden interview, and you watch a Trump interview, thereās no comparison. And Trump speaks off the cuff.
āI understand what itās like, sometimes you get it wrong. But I would way rather hear somebody come from here [the heart] and get it wrong once in a while.ā