Johnny McEntee said he was "helping clean up the community" by giving fake bills to homeless people so they are arrested when they try to use it.
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Former Donald Trump Aide Slammed Over TikTok Video—'Disgusting and Illegal'
Published May 13, 2024 at 5:46 AM EDT
Updated May 13, 2024 at 7:47 AM EDT
00:27
Trump: 'I'd Be Very Proud To Go To Jail For Our Constitution'
By
Khaleda Rahman
Senior News Reporter
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John McEntee, a former aide in the Trump administration, has sparked an online backlash over a
TikTok video where he said he gives fake money to homeless people so they are arrested when they use it.
McEntee, who is currently working on HR for
Donald Trump's campaign and is a senior adviser for the Heritage Foundation's 2025 Presidential Transition Project, said his actions were helping to "clean up the community" in the TikTok posted on the account for The Right Stuff,
a dating app for U.S. conservatives that McEntee co-founded.
"So 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 $5 bill, so I feel good about myself, they feel good," McEntee said in the
clip.
"And then, when they go to use it, they get arrested so I'm actually like helping clean up the community. You know, getting them off the street."
The video's caption says: "Just a joke. Everyone calm down #fyp."
McEntee and the Trump campaign have been contacted for comment via email.
People can be fined and face up to 20 years in prison if they "knowingly and with the intent to defraud" possess or distribute any false, forged or counterfeit bill under 18 U.S. Code § 480.
McEntee's video has gone viral, with more than 7 million views and almost half a million likes since it was posted almost a week ago. Some found it amusing, while others said it was "pure evil."
President Donald Trump walks with his John McEntee, then director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, in Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2020. McEntee is facing a backlash on social media after posting a... More ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Many also criticized McEntee on X, formerly
Twitter, after the clip began circulating on the platform.
"Johnny McEntee, senior adviser to Project 2025 & Trump's Director of the Office of Personnel Management, says he likes to distribute fake money to homeless people so that they will be arrested when they spend it," the
Republicans Against Trump account wrote. "This is disgusting and illegal."
Another person, @JoJoFromJerz, wrote on X: "This is sick. This is evil. This is cruel. Getting people 'comfortable' with all of that is the goal. I don't want to live in a world where this is ok. Do you?"
Comics writer Ron Marz wrote: "We have always had repugnant, awful people. But Trump's rise has made them not only unafraid to display it, but utterly proud to show off their despicable behavior. I don't know how we ever fix it."
Others said it was a sign of how high the stakes are in November's election.
"Monstrous people. We cannot let them have this nation in November," wrote author and former youth pastor John Pavlovitz.
Journalist @KellyScaletta, who regularly posts anti-Trump messages, wrote: "This could be one of the most powerful men in America if Trump wins. Don't let that happen."
McEntee was fired from his initial post at the Trump White House in March 2018 after a background check revealed he had deposited large sums of money into his bank account that turned out to be gambling winnings, according to
The Atlantic. He returned in 2020, serving as the director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, responsible for vetting and hiring.
The Atlantic described McEntee as among those who backed Trump's drive to overturn his 2020 election loss to
Joe Biden and "set the stage" for the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
<< are going to be in for the fight of our lives on all fronts. And that isn’t hyperbole.
