This suggestion initially won our Agendy award for Best Worst Person with a Good Idea, and bawitdaba, Kid Rock is actually putting his money where his mouth is instead of his foot, Lauren Boebert, or Bud Light. As our sister publication The Needle Drop reported, President Donald Trump met with Kid Rock in the Oval Office to discuss a new executive order, and before you hit us with the “oh fuck, what did he do now?!” this one might actually be a good one. Something something broken clock.
Comically, Trump refers to Kid Rock by his Christian name, Bob Ritchie, which is especially funny given that the early mornin’ stoned pimp played Trump’s second inauguration. Once again, this is a case of “the worst person you know makes a great point,” and Ritchie points out the grim reality of scalping tickets.
He had this to say:
"Anyone who's bought a concert ticket in the last decade, maybe 20 years, no matter what your politics are, knows it is a conundrum. You buy a ticket for $100. By the time you check out, it's $170."
Later he somehow continued to be on the level with this statement:
"These bots, they come in to get all the good tickets to your favorite shows... and then they're relisted immediately for sometimes a four or five hundred percent markup. And the artists don't see any of that money."
Wilder still, Trump’s statement agreeing with Ritchie wasn’t totally off the mark either:
"I think Bob is more interested in the fans and the people that are happy to pay crazy prices than he is the artist. Maybe the artist a little bit, but the fans a lot. I've spoken to him over the years about it, and it bothers him. It bothers a lot of other artists, too. It does. The artist, and they go out with a $100 ticket and it sells for $2,000 the following night. And [scalpers] seem to be able to sweep up the best locations, too, which is pretty amazing."
The executive order also spells out enforcement of the 2016 Better Online Ticket Sales Act, which was signed by then-President Barack Obama. The full factsheet can be found on the White House’s official website, but in so many words, the Federal Trade Commission will be doing the following:
- Work with the Attorney General to ensure that competition laws are appropriately enforced in the concert and entertainment industry.
- Rigorously enforce the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act and promote its enforcement by state consumer protection authorities.
- Ensure price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process, including the secondary ticketing market.
- Evaluate and, if appropriate, take enforcement action to prevent unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct in the secondary ticketing market.
Does this undo all of the harm Trump and his regime have already done in their speedrun of destroying democracy as we know it? No. But at least we have our circuses at a decent price, if this goes anywhere. Now about the bread, or maybe the eggs…
Check out the full address from Trump and Kid Rock, as covered by ABC News:
