Trump says his teen son Barron told him he needed to go on streamer Adin Ross' show
Donald Trump said his son Barron talked him into an interview with the high-profile streamer Adin Ross.
The interview drew more than 500,000 viewers and ended with Trump accepting a Cybertruck from Ross.
This is Trump's latest effort to engage younger voters.
It appears that former President Donald Trump's teenage son, Barron, has become his de-facto Gen Z advisor.
Trump said his 18-year-old son influenced his decision to do an interview with the high-profile streamer Adin Ross.
Trump's interview on Monday with the 23-year-old Ross, lasting more than an hour, drew a crowd of about 400,000 to 580,000 viewers. Ross' viewers are primarily male and conservative.
Trump kicked off the interview, which took place in his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, by telling Ross that his son "says hello" and that "he's a big fan of yours."
"My sons told me about you," Trump said to Ross later in the interview, adding that Barron had told him: "Dad, he's really big."
Ross — who wore a white Make America Great Again hat during the interview — said Barron Trump was "awesome" and a "great kid."
Ross tried to introduce the former president to the world of livestreaming, teaching him the nitty-gritty of how live chats work and introducing him to some Gen Z slang.
For one, Ross explained to Trump what the "W's" that viewers were typing into the livestream chat meant.
"W's mean it's good. W means win," Ross said, adding: "W Trump."
Halfway through the interview, Ross unveiled the first of two goodies he said he was gifting Trump — a gold Rolex watch.
Trump called it a "beautiful" and "great" watch, showing it to the camera and drawing applause from the audience seated behind them.
And at the end of the interview, Ross said he had another gift for Trump, leading him outdoors to a customized Tesla Cybertruck.
Panning to the vehicle, the video showed that Trump's iconic photo from his assassination attempt at his Pennsylvania rally in July was emblazoned on the side of the Cybertruck.
Trump immediately recognized the vehicle, saying, "That's an Elon," and calling it "incredible."
The stream ended with Ross and Trump streaming from the Cybertruck as "YMCA" played them out.
Ross has a follower count of 4.45 million people on YouTube and 1.35 million on Kick, a streaming platform rivaling Twitch. He rose to fame streaming himself playing NBA 2K20 and Grand Theft Auto 5.
He has previously hosted some controversial figures, such as Andrew Tate, a kickboxer and reality-TV star who in 2022 was barred from Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for making misogynistic comments.
NBC reported that Ross had also drawn flak for displaying pornographic content on his livestreams.
Trump hasn't given up on appealing to the Gen Z base
Trump's latest interview with Ross indicates that he's still rooting for the support of his younger voters.
This is an effort that has been in the works for a while. Though he once backed a TikTok ban, he's now going all in with his support for keeping the app in the US.
He joined the Gen Z-beloved platform on June 1 and, within hours, had amassed millions of followers. At press time, he has more than 9.6 million followers.
In June, Trump sat down for an hourlong interview with the controversial social-media influencer Logan Paul, which he promoted on his TikTok.
But his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, isn't far behind on her own tactics to appeal to younger voters through a solid revamp of her campaign's social-media accounts.
Shaking off Biden's old style from the campaign TikTok account, her first post was a screenshot of Charli XCX's post endorsing her with the statement "kamala IS brat."
The presumptive Democratic nominee has also raked in multiple endorsements from celebrities in the Gen Z orbit.
Apart from Charli XCX, she has gotten stamps of approval from the singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo and the rapper Cardi B. Megan Thee Stallion also performed for her rally in Atlanta on July 31.
Representatives for Trump and Ross didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
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