Rapper Kid Rock said Donald Trump once asked him for advice on US policy towards the Islamic State and North Korea.
In an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson that aired Monday night, the musician also spoke about “cancel culture” — which claimed to be “uncancelable” — and the coronavirus pandemic.
Of the latter, referring to Joe Biden’s senior medical adviser, he said, “Fuck Fauci.”
“You speak for many when you say that,” Carlson replied.
Because of his role in the federal response to a pandemic that has killed more than 972,000 people in the United States, 81-year-old Fauci has faced threats to his safety and that of his family.
Kid Rock has described himself to the Guardian as “definitely a Republican on tax issues and in the military, but I lean towards the middle on social issues”.
“I’m not a fan of abortion,” he said, “but it’s not for a man to tell a woman what to do. As an ordained minister, I’m not looking forward to marrying gay people, but I’m not against it.”
He also said he “played Barack Obama’s inauguration [in 2009] although I didn’t choose it. I didn’t agree with his policies, but there was an exciting sense of change in the air. That promise has not been kept – the country is more divided than ever.”
After the Trump presidency, such judgments have been confirmed. Carlson, who was Kid Rock’s Monday interviewer, has emerged as a particularly controversial primetime presence.
In a friendly interview to mark the release of a new album — Kid Rock wore a We the People cap, Carlson in a V-neck sweater and khakis — the topic revolved around the musician’s friendship with Trump.
In a famous 2017 picture, the rapper was seen in the Oval Office behind the Resolute Desk with Trump, rock musician Ted Nugent and Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate. Palin said she invited the right-wing rockers “because Jesus was booked.”
“I was there [Trump] one day when he ended the caliphate,” Kid Rock, 51, and born Robert Ritchie, told Carlson in reference to US efforts against Islamic State.
“He was about to tweet… I don’t like speaking outside of school. I hope it’s not me. But… the tweet was, and I’m paraphrasing, but it’s like, “If you’ve ever joined the caliphate, you know if you try, you’ll be dead.”
“He says, ‘What do you think?’ [I said] ‘Fantastic. I can’t add anything better.’ But then it comes out and it’s … rephrased and more political to look politically correct. And just ‘fear’.”
He also said he and Trump once “looked at maps. I think, you know, like, ‘Am I supposed to be involved in this shit?’ Just like I sometimes make dirty records. I do.
“‘What do you think we should do about North Korea?’ I’m like, ‘What? I don’t think I’m qualified to answer that.’”
In four years in office, Trump has threatened and met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. No progress was made in ending the US confrontation with the nuclear-armed dictator.
Some online critics are wondering if Trump really asked Kid Rock what to do about North Korea.
But after Kid Rock’s 2017 visit to the White House with Nugent and Palin, Nugent told the New York Times the group talked about “health, fitness, food, rock ‘n’ roll, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, safe boundaries, the story.” of the United States, Guns, Bullets, Bows and Arrows, North Korea, Russia and a Half Dozen Other Issues”.
Speaking to Carlson, Kid Rock also praised Trump for speaking “off the cuff.”
“You see, if you look at a Joe Biden interview and a Trump interview, there is no comparison. And Trump speaks impromptu.
“I understand how it is, sometimes you’re wrong. But I’d much rather hear someone coming from here [the heart] and sometimes get it wrong.”