Adin Ross gives Trump a cybertruck, a Rolex and access to a heavily male audience

FLORIDA - What do you give a former president who has everything?

Mr Adin Ross, an internet celebrity known for stirring controversy, answered that question with a gold Rolex watch and a customised Tesla Cybertruck, both of which he presented to Donald Trump during an interview that was livestreamed on Aug 5 afternoon.

“I think it’s incredible,” said Trump as he eyeballed the electric vehicle, which was parked in the porte-cochere of Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Florida.

The car – closely associated with the Trump-supporting CEO of Tesla, Mr Elon Musk, and subject of an ongoing culture war – has been in short supply since Tesla began selling it in late 2023.

This one, which Mr Ross drove to the interview, was festooned in red, white and blue with Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again”, emblazoned on the hood.

On each side was the now-ubiquitous photo of the Republican presidential nominee, fist raised defiantly, taken seconds after the attempt on his life at a campaign rally in July.

Before a streaming audience that at times topped 500,000 people, Trump then climbed into the Cybertruck and, along with Mr Ross, listened to songs from a custom playlist prepared for the occasion. “Who doesn’t like the Beach Boys?” Trump asked.

He was equally admiring of the watch. “Wow, that’s so nice,” he chirped, fondling the green leather box containing the timepiece.

Per Tesla’s website, a base model Cybertruck has a sticker price of $60,990 (S$80,753), with high-end trims topping $100,000.

A customised wrap – the printed vinyl sticker covering every exterior surface of the vehicle – starts around $4,000. Rolex watches typically start at $5,000.

All of those price tags far exceed the federal limit on individual campaign contributions, which is $3,300 per election cycle, in cash or in-kind – making Mr Ross’ show of generosity a potential campaign finance violation.

“I would expect that once Trump gets off the livestream and talks to his lawyers, he’ll be advised that he can’t accept these gifts and will have to turn them down or give them to charity,” said Mr Brendan Fischer, a campaign finance expert who is the deputy executive director at Documented, a watchdog group.

He added: “What other conclusion can you come to other than that this is an illegal and excessive campaign contribution?”

Ms Karoline Leavitt, a Trump spokesperson, said in a statement that “our campaign will submit an advisory opinion to the FEC to seek guidance on how to handle the gifts,” referring to the Federal Election Commission.

Regardless, the more crucial gift the former president got by sitting for the interview may well be access to the millions of young, mostly male and right-leaning potential voters who follow Mr Ross on social media.

Mr Ross, 23, rose to fame by streaming himself playing video games. He routinely draws 150,000 or more simultaneous viewers on those streams, which can run for five or more hours at a time.

But he has provoked some backlash over the guests he has welcomed on his stream, including Mr Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer who last year was

indicted on rape and human trafficking charges in Romania.

He has also given airtime to Mr Nick Fuentes, an avowed white supremacist, and he has hosted neo-Nazis wearing swastika emblems.

He was sanctioned by Twitch, a livestreaming platform, multiple times for homophobic statements and hateful content before the site banned him in 2023. He now hosts his stream on a rival site, Kick.

But he remains enormously popular with a testosterone-heavy demographic that Mr Trump sees as critical to his re-election chances.

The key is getting those men to the voting booth.

And so, Trump in June sat for an interview with Mr Logan Paul, a professional wrestler, energy drink entrepreneur and influencer with more than 50 million social media followers, including 27 million on Instagram alone.

Last week, Trump posted two videos with Mr Jake Paul, Logan Paul’s brother and an influencer-turned-boxer, on his TikTok account, accumulating more than 17 million views.

He has also twice granted interviews to the Nelk Boys, a group of Canadian pranksters famous on YouTube.

On Aug 2, the Nelk Boys released an hour-long podcast interview with Mr JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, that so far has logged 1.2 million views on YouTube.

Mr Ross proved to be a decidedly non-confrontational interlocutor for Trump. Over nearly 90 minutes, he gave Trump space to repeatedly

demean and insult Vice-President Kamala Harris

and President Joe Biden, and to boast or complain however he saw fit.

Mr Ross also openly entreated his audience to vote for the Republican, an endorsement so enthusiastic that it appeared to surprise even Trump.

Trump said he had been interviewed many times by people “who really do like me,” but “they wouldn’t do what you just did. They wouldn’t say ‘vote for him’.”

“I think it’s great that you can say something like that,” he added. NYTIMES