Ex-Trump aide slammed as ‘evil’ for ‘joke’ about giving homeless people fake money so they get arrested

A former Trump administration aide is facing backlash after he posted a video on TikRok saying he was helping “clean up the community” by purposefully giving homeless people counterfeit money so they get arrested when using it.

John McEntee, who worked in the White House under Donald Trump from 2017 until 2021, posted the video to a social media account associated with The Right Stuff, the conservative dating app he founded.

“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 five dollar bill so I feel good about myself, they feel good and then when they go to use it they get arrested,” Mr McEntee says in the video, smiling while holding several bills.

He adds: “So I’m actually helping like clean up the community you know, getting them off the streets.”

Under federal statute 18 section 471, it is a federal crime to intently “defraud, falsely makes, forges, counterfeits, or alters any obligation or other security of the United States”. That includes currency, treasury notes, reserve notes and more.

Mr McEntee caveated that the video was “just a joke” but the startling revelation fuelled outrage from some on social media.

On X, formerly Twitter, users re-posted the video, tagged the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Secret Service, and called for Mr McEntee’s arrest.

“This is disgusting and illegal,” Republicans Against Trump wrote in a post.

Meanwhile, on TikTok, commenters played into the joke claiming Mr McEntee was “not just cleaning up community” but “giving [homeless people] a warm place to live and 3 meals a day.”

One commenter said the joke was “mean but funny” and others agreed, calling it a “harmless prank”.

Mr McEntee is a loyalist to Mr Trump, serving as a personal aide from January 2017 until March 2018. He was later made director of the White House presidential personnel office until Mr Trump left office in January 2021.

Upon leaving the White House, Mr McEntee launched The Right Stuff.

Last year, he joined The Heritage Foundation to work on Project 2025 – a proposed series of radical policy changes that conservatives would make to the federal government should Mr Trump win the 2024 presidential election. He is currently a senior advisor to the 2025 Presidential Transition Project.

The Independent has reached out to The Right Stuff for comment.