Johnny McEntee, the former White House Trump aide closely linked to plans for radical federal government reform should Donald Trump win re-election, stoked outrage with a TikTok video in which he joked about giving fake money to homeless people to ensure their arrest.
“So I always keep this fake Hollywood money in my car,” McEntee said in the video posted last week by The Right Stuff, a dating site for rightwingers of which McEntee is a co-founder (note that this dating site is not to be confused with the National Socialist podcast network of the same name). “So when a homeless person asks for money, then I give them like a fake $5 bill. So I feel good about myself. They feel good. 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,” McEntee said.
The video included a caption: “Just a joke. Everyone calm down.”
Despite McEntee’s unambiguous insistence that he was merely joking, commentators and social media users took offense to the very idea of his TikTok, expressing their disdain in the harshest language.
“What a cruel, indecent POS,” Lincoln Project advisor Tara Setmayer wrote on X, apparently missing the part where McEntee clarified his jest. “As some who helped her mom get a homeless day center off the ground, and watched the incredible work her mom did to help countless homeless reunite with their families or get the helping hand they needed to live productive lives, I can’t imagine being this awful as a human being. Which explains why I’m proudly NOT MAGA and working so hard to defeat this ilk.”
What a cruel, indecent POS.
— Tara Setmayer 🌻 (@TaraSetmayer) May 13, 2024
As some who helped her mom get a homeless day center off the ground, and watched the incredible work her mom did to help countless homeless reunite with their families or get the helping hand they needed to live productive lives, I can’t imagine… https://t.co/2MqgtYUMpo
McEntee was a former high school quarterback who went on to become President Trump’s “body man,” closely following the then-President and attending to his day-to-day needs. McEntee was reportedly fired at the behest of Chief of Staff John Kelly, who claimed that McEntee’s security clearance had been compromised by an alleged gambling habit.
Nonetheless, McEntee is widely reported to be involved in preparations for a Trump second term meant to feature far-reaching reforms, under the label Project 2025, and purges of government officials deemed insufficiently loyal.
As McEntee’s video about giving unhoused people fake money spread around the internet, however, some observers pointed to a possible problem with federal law, should he ever prove not to be joking.
“Whoever, within the United States, knowingly and with intent to defraud, possesses or delivers any false, forged, or counterfeit bond, certificate, obligation, security, treasury note, bill, promise to pay, bank note, or bill issued by a bank or corporation of any foreign country, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both,” reads 18 US Code section 480.
