Former President Donald Trump has long been lauded for his drug- and alcohol-free lifestyle, but a viral clip making the rounds on social media has some wondering whether he’s not nearly as immune to a different vice.
That vice? Gambling.
Given that some of Trump’s earliest business ventures were casinos, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise.
Whatever his case, MMA fans couldn’t resist speculating about what they witnessed in a clip from UFC 287 in Miami on Saturday.
The Twitter account MMA Mania posted a rather blurry video purporting to show the former president handing some cash over to music legend Kid Rock.
“Looks like Donald Trump lost a bet to Kid Rock,” the accompanying tweet said.
Looks like Donald Trump lost a bet to Kid Rock pic.twitter.com/05P4VZrfiC
— MMA Mania (@mmamania) April 10, 2023
While it’s tough to make out exactly what happened, it does appear Trump reached into his back pocket to grab his wallet and later placed money in the singer’s hands.
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Naturally, anyone who has ever begrudgingly lost a bet recognized that agonizing wallet whip-out and assumed the former president had lost a wager during the pay-per-view event.
Of course, shy of Trump revealing what happened, there’s no way of knowing definitively whether he was paying up on a bet or telling Kid Rock to grab him a large popcorn on the way out of the arena.
That didn’t stop people online from having a field day of conjecture on what transpired — and what it might say about Trump’s character.
One Twitter user said anyone who is willing to square a bet is a “legitimate” person. Another lauded Trump for being a “man of his word.” A third tweeted that the former president “pays up.“
Naturally, there were equal and opposite reactions on the Twitter thread, with Trump’s critics taking the usual shots at him.
One curious criticism was that the clip doesn’t actually show Trump interacting with Kid Rock.
While the clip is certainly blurry and it’s difficult to make out what exactly was going on, there is ample evidence it shows those two men.
First, there’s this photo that Donald Trump Jr. posted of his father, UFC President Dana White, Kid Rock and boxing legend Mike Tyson (imagine that play-by-play announcing team) clearly sitting together by the octagon:
Legends @ufc pic.twitter.com/6hDLUXQ8KN
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 9, 2023
“Legends,” the younger Trump said in his post.
Also, in the original video, you can clearly see that the general setting (nearby the octagon) tracks, as do the general figures present (you can see people who appear to be White and Tyson where they “should” be sitting in the top video.)
As to why Kid Rock appeared to change his wardrobe in the middle of the night (note the red jacket in Donald Trump Jr.’s photo and the black in the video), even that appears to have a rather mundane explanation: It appears the singer just got hot and took his jacket off.
In a video of Trump receiving a rowdy reaction from UFC fans, you can clearly see Kid Rock sitting to his left with his bright red jacket draped over the back of his seat.
President Trump received a standing ovation at UFC 287 and then the crowd started chanting “USA!” pic.twitter.com/TeERwryfYQ
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) April 9, 2023
Again, the general public might never know what happened between Trump and Kid Rock at UFC 287.
But if this is the kind of attention and national spotlight that will be fixated on him leading up to the 2024 presidential race, it’s going to be quite the wild (and speculative) ride.
