Banned Twitch streamer Adin Ross gets Donald Trump on a Kick stream, gifts him a Rolex, then they sit together in a Trumped-out Cybertruck listening to Elvis' 'Can't Help Falling In Love'

In both a sign and indictment of the times, former president and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump became a Kick streamer yesterday. Specifically, Trump appeared on the channel of controversial streamer Adin Ross for a fawning 90-minute interview, live from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, that drew over half a million viewers at its peak.

What did they talk about? All sorts. In Trump's trademark rambling style, the pair touched on topics ranging from the ex-president's disastrous appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists convention to a peculiar lightning round in which Ross pulled up images of celebrities and world leaders—including Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, DPRK supreme leader Kim Jong-un, plus Ross and Trump themselves—and asked Trump to give a one-word summation of each, a word limit the former prez immediately failed to keep to.

Trump said he had heard of Ross via his own son, 18-year-old Barron Trump, who is apparently a big fan of the streamer. "'Dad, he's really big,'" said Trump, imitating his son, "'he's also a friend of mine.'"

That the younger Trump is a Ross fan isn't a surprise. At his Twitch peak, Ross had 7.2 million followers and currently has 1.36 million followers on Kick, and he has particular sway over young men like Barron Trump. Donald Trump no doubt hopes his appearance on Ross' stream will give him a boost among the demographic come election time.

To put it delicately, Ross is a controversial figure: He courted multiple Twitch bans during his time on Amazon's service for using slurs, and eventually had to take a permanent ban—for «Hateful conduct»—from the platform after livestreaming his own unmoderated Kick chat on it, which was filled with antisemitic and racist messages. He has also played host to Andrew Tate, the misogynistic influencer currently facing charges for rape and human trafficking in Romania. He might not host him again though: Tate might bear a grudge after Ross reportedly got