Donald Trump’s former White House aide is under fire after a video showed him claiming to distribute fake money to homeless people so that they will be arrested when they spend it.

Johnny McEntee, formerly the White House Presidential Personnel Office under the former president, posted a video on TikTok in which he discusses the purported scheme to “clean up the community.”

“So I always keep this fake Hollywood money in my car, so when a homeless person asks for money, and I give them like a $5 bill, I feel good about myself, they feel good,” said McEntee, also a senior advisor to Project 2025. “And then when they go to use it, they get arrested, so I’m actually helping to clean up the community and get them off the street.”

  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Alternate headline: Vapid idiot brags about his incessant need to punch down in order to sexually perform

  • boydster@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    Didn’t George Floyd get murdered because he paid with a counterfeit? And assholes like this are proud of it.

    • moon@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      No. George Floyd was murdered because an asshole cop thought he could choke him out with impunity

    • DABDA@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      rappers often get prosecuted based on their lyrics

      Rapp Snitch Knishes

      • this_1_is_mine@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Rap snitches, tellin’ all their business Sit in the court and be their own star witness “Do you see the perpetrator?” Yeah, I’m right here Fuck around, get the whole label sent up for years…

    • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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      6 months ago

      By notified it means that they were tagged on social media. Persecution would probably require a victim to be found or come forward, or maybe get a warrant to search his vehicle for counterfeits and cocaine, unless they get him for a lesser charge like conspiracy to commit a crime.

    • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      The Secret Service was created to investigate counterfeiting. The president stuff came later.

    • Saprophyte@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      https://www.secretservice.gov/investigations

      Counterfeiting of United States currency, bonds, checks, and other financial obligations and securities. Distributing or passing of counterfeited, forged, or altered U.S. currency and other financial obligations and securities. Criminals sometimes use online forums to sell bulk counterfeited U.S. or foreign currency.

    • Octavio@kbin.social
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      6 months ago

      Well their original charter was to investigate counterfeiting. The presidential protection thing was kind of an add-on. But my impression was that the original function was moved to a different agency and the USSS, originally under the treasury department, moved to Homeland Security. So I don’t know why they would have anything to with this. Unless I remembered that wrong.

      • Wrench@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Right. I always thought the FBI was responsible for hunting down counterfeiting. The whole point of the FBI is to be federal level police, and our currency is a federal concern.

        • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          I understand why you would think that, but it’s wrong. The secret service is absolutely still in charge of investigating counterfeit money.

          I handled a lot of cash for an old job and I had to submit a form to the secret service whenever I reported counterfeits.

    • neuropean@kbin.social
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      6 months ago

      They basically handle counterfeit money cases, so people spending counterfeit money provided by this asshole would have been investigated by the secret service.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Their original job was to go after counterfeiting And it’s still their jam. (Along with other similar financial crimes.)

      (Edit fuck autocorrect,)

        • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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          6 months ago

          Actually, a carpenter dealers with wooden structures like building frames and decks. A cabinet maker dealers with more intricate woodworking like furniture, countertops, and interior decorations. If you’re going to snarky, you better be correct.

    • Wrench@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Those cannot be reasonably mistaken for real currency. Carefully so, even.

      This person allegedly (from his own mouth) intentionally passed off paper convincing enough to be used in films, as real currency, to people with a high likelihood of mental illness, in the express desire to trick them into using it as real currency so that they get arrested.

      Who knows if any of this is true, but from the asses’ own mouth, that’s a world of difference in intent.

    • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      The people who pass these out are huge assholes…but do honestly need it explained to you why tricking a homeless person into using fake money so they are arrested is not the same as some religious nutter attempting to trick you into reading their proselytization?

  • Otakulad@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Shows how stupid this guy is. Obviously it isn’t illegal for someone to own “Hollywood money” or else he wouldn’t admit to owning it himself. If a homeless person gives it to a store and they accept it, that’s on them.

    It clearly states on the bills “For Motion Picture use Only”, doesn’t feel right, and isn’t the right size.

    • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      If a homeless man accepts a Hollywood bill, believes it genuine, and tries to spend it - they’re not at fault for most of the currency related laws. Simply handing a homeless person a fake bill with the intent that they believe it is genuine is the super illegal thing. There’s a large mens rhea component to most crimes but especially around fraud… the basis of most fraud cases is inequal information: you purposefully don’t disclose a significant quality of the goods being transferred.

      I hope this shitheel learns thoroughly that the secret service are really fucking serious about their non-bodyguard duty.

      (Also, shout out to Warehouse 13 for being a fucking hilarious premise right in this area)

    • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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      6 months ago

      The person handing them out, passing the fake bills off as real money to the homeless(even as a donation) is the illegal thing. Spending a counterfeit bill without having known it was fake is not illegal in the US afaik, but you can still be arrested for it because the police don’t have to believe that you didn’t know.

      • Otakulad@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I mean it isn’t counterfeit. Counterfeit is making a bill yourself that looks exactly like an actual bill. These specifically state they aren’t real.

        I didn’t know about giving it out as a donation though.

        • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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          6 months ago

          The quality of the item is only a consideration if its unreasonable for a regular person to mistake it for real (a good example is bills printed in red). If someone could mistake it for genuine and you’re falsely presenting it as genuine - then you’ve got fraud.

  • Delusional@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Wow who knew that these obvious piece of shit scumbags were obvious piece of shit scumbags. They’re a detriment to our society and republicans elect them to positions of power where they can become even larger detriments to our society.

  • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    I’m sure he will offer to part in anyone who gets arrested during his campaign. Then conveniently forget about it should he get elected

  • Shadowq8@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    What does it matter if Trump wins or not.

    Us politicians are already bought and sold by capitalist pigs out of control.

    Its only a matter of time that inflation keeps getting worse and worse and China is going to keep undermining US economy.

    The CEOs have already secured their lifeboats, and the future of capitalism out of control is that it will hollow out the economy.

    The USA has entered a death spiral of poverty by capitalist design, the CEOS are too blinded by greed to see what they have done. And the politicians are in there pockets.

    It will keep getting worse and worse.