Trump targets live performance ticket scalping with Kid Rock at his aspect
President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order aimed at protecting fans from ‘exploitative ticket scalping’ and reforming the U.S. live entertainment ticketing industry.
Trump signed the directive in the Oval Office, with singer Kid Rock standing next to him in a patriotic American flag-themed outfit.
Kid Rock said ticket scalpers’ use of bots to buy large numbers of tickets at face value and then selling them for a profit is a big problem in the industry.
‘I want the fans to have fair ticket prices,’ Kid Rock said, adding that legislation was eventually needed to cap ticket purchases.
Trump called Kid Rock, who performed at last summer’s Republican National Convention, a ‘friend.’
‘So it’s an honor to have you back, a friend of mine, Kid Rock, sometimes referred to as Bob. I know him as Bob. But he’s been a good friend for a long time, many years, and he’s been after something that is for the good of a lot of people,’ Trump said.
Kid Rock’s real name is Robert James Ritchie.
‘And I think Bob is more interested in the fans … It bothers him,’ Trump said. ‘It bothers a lot of other artists too.’
President Donald Trump (right) signed an executive order Monday that went after the practice of bots buying up concert tickets and then reselling them for much higher prices. Kid Rock (left) was there for the Oval Office event
Kid Rock (left), whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, stands alongside President Donald Trump (right) in the Oval Office on Monday. Trump signed an executive order going after ticket scalping and gouging
The order directs Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to ensure that ticket scalpers are in full compliance with the tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service and other applicable law, a White House fact sheet said.
It also orders the Federal Trade Commission to work with the U.S. attorney to ensure that competition laws are appropriately enforced in the concert and entertainment industry, according to the fact sheet.
The Justice Department and dozens of state attorneys general sued Live Nation Entertainment and its ticket-selling unit, Ticketmaster, last year for allegedly monopolizing markets across the live concert industry in ways that hurt artists and fans.
Live Nation Entertainment issued a statement on Monday in support of Trump’s order and thanked him for trying to address scalpers and bots.
‘We support any meaningful resale reforms – including more enforcement of the BOTS act, caps on resale prices, and more,’ the firm said.
In January, senators assailed Live Nation Entertainment’s lack of transparency and inability to block bot purchases of tickets, in a hearing called after a major fiasco involving ticket sales for a Taylor Swift concert tour.
Ticketmaster, which has been unpopular with fans for years, drew fresh heat from lawmakers over how it handled ticket sales last fall for Swift’s ‘Eras’ tour, her first in five years.
Experts say Ticketmaster commands more than a 70 percent market share of primary ticket services for major U.S. concert venues.
Kid Rock, who performed at last summer’s Republican National Convention on behalf of Trump, visited the White House on Monday for a ticket scalping executive order signing. He also recently encouraged Trump to have dinner with comedian and critic Bill Maher
The White House fact sheet singled out bot sales in particular.
‘Ticket scalpers use bots and other unfair means to acquire large quantities of face-value tickets, then re-sell them at an enormous markup on the secondary market, price-gouging consumers and depriving fans of the opportunity to see their favorite artists without incurring extraordinary expenses,’ it said.
Ahead of Kid Rock’s White House appearance Monday, Trump revealed that the rocker was the reason he agreed to sit down and have dinner with comedian and critic Bill Maher.
‘I really didn’t like the idea much, and don’t like it much now, but thought it would be interesting,’ Trump said on Truth Social. ‘It might be fun or, it might not, but you will be the first to know!’
Maher said in an interview with NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo Friday that ‘maybe this is a beginning to heal America.’
‘No I don’t have some sort of complex where I think I can heal America, I can’t, let’s get that clear,’ Maher said.
He compared it to President Richard Nixon going to China to restart diplomatic ties.
‘There was nobody who was harder on Trump or more prescient about the fact that he wasn’t going to leave office voluntarily than I was,’ Maher continued. ‘I feel like I have the credentials.’
‘But they also respect me because I’m honest about the woke train to crazytown,’ Maher said of the MAGA movement.
‘Look, it probably will accomplish very little, but you got to try, man, you got to try,’ the Real Time host added.
