“Vile & heartless” Trump aide brags about getting innocent homeless people arrested

Donald Trump campaign staffer Johnny McEntee has been slammed for a recent TikTok video in which he proudly explains how he gives fake money to homeless people so that they will get arrested when they try to use it.

“So I always keep this fake Hollywood money in my car so when a homeless person asks for money, then I give him like a fake $5 bill, so I feel good about myself, they feel good,” McEntee explains in the clip. “And then, when they go to use it, they get arrested so I’m actually like helping clean up the community. You know, getting them off the street.”

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McEntee was a personal aide to the president and headed the White House Presidential Personnel Office during the Trump administration. He currently works in human resources on Trump’s presidential campaign and is also a senior advisor on The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 – a far-right wish list laying out policy positions for the next Republican president, which include several viciously anti-LGBTQ+ proposals.

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Project 2025 calls for Trump to reinstate his transgender military ban; end educational, workplace, and healthcare protections for transgender people; and instruct Congress to define gender as male and female and fixed at birth. The plan would end all acknowledgment of trans people and gender identity. It also conflates “transgender ideology” with pornography and suggests imprisoning and classifying as sex offenders anybody associated with either part of the “psychologically destructive” and unfounded combination.

Endorsed by about 100 right-wing organizations and filled with contributions by Trump loyalists, the group suggests the next conservative presidential administration “must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for culture warriors” and proposes removing terms such as gender equality, DEI, abortion, and reproductive rights from “every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.”

The TikTok video was originally posted to the account of the right-wing dating app, The Right Stuff, co-founded by McEntee, but it has since been re-posted across the Internet. The caption on the original clip reads, “Just a joke. Everyone calm down,” but it was not enough to appease folks who know how dangerous rhetoric like this can be, serious or not. Additionally, many did not seem convinced it wasn’t a legitimate confession of his actions.

In fact, many on social media tagged the FBI and Secret Service, hoping to trigger an investigation into McEntee’s claim that he is intentionally distributing counterfeit money, which is against the law.

Hey @SecretService check out the dude from Project 2025. He's giving out counterfeit money as real money to homeless to set them up. https://t.co/E85tci9cGG

— Archer (@ArchertheArmo) May 13, 2024

Spoke to a friend recently who's worked as civil servant for years and dealt with Trump people. He said, "Here's the thing: They literally don't care if something is illegal. Oh, that's illegal? It'll be fine."

BTW, @SecretService, FYI. https://t.co/xvQ9LSc4JV

— Reed Galen (@reedgalen) May 12, 2024

Others on the site called him “sick,” “evil,” “repugnant,” an “entitled, psycho monster,” and a “degenerate racist,” with one user warning, “This could be one of the most powerful men in America if Trump wins.”

“Johnny McEntee, senior advisor to Project 2025 & Trump’s Director of the Office of Personnel Management, says he likes to distribute fake money to homeless people so that they will be arrested when they spend it,” the Republicans against Trump account wrote on X. “This is disgusting and illegal.”

Johnny McEntee, senior advisor to Project 2025 & Trump’s Director of the Office of Personnel Management, says he likes to distribute fake money to homeless people so that they will be arrested when they spend it.

This is disgusting and illegal.
pic.twitter.com/kpU0z1IOYW

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) May 13, 2024

Worth mentioning that this is Johnny McEntee, senior advisor to Project 2025.

This could be one of the most powerful men in America if Trump wins.

Don't let that happen.

— Machine Pun Kelly