Trump welcomes Kid Rock to White House for order targeting ticket
scalpers
[April 01, 2025]
By WILL WEISSERT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump invited Kid Rock into the Oval
Office on Monday and signed an executive order that he says will help
curb ticket scalping and bring “commonsense” changes to the way live
events are priced.
“Anyone who’s bought a concert ticket in the last decade, maybe 20 years
— no matter what your politics are — knows that it’s a conundrum,” said
Kid Rock, who wore a red bedazzled suit featuring an American flag motif
and a straw fedora.
Designed to stop “price-gouging by middlemen,” the order directs
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to
ensure that scalpers offering tickets at higher prices than their face
value comply with all Internal Revenue Service rules.
It also orders the Federal Trade Commission to ensure “price
transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process” and to “take
enforcement action to prevent unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive
conduct in the secondary ticketing market,” which the Trump
administration argues can restore sensibility and order to the ticket
market.
Trump said he knows Kid Rock, a longtime supporter whose real name is
Robert James Ritchie, as simply “Bob.”
“He’s been a good friend for a long time,” Trump said.
The president said rising fees for concerts and other events have
“gotten worse and worse with time.” Kid Rock agreed.
“You can buy a ticket for $100. By the time you check out, it's $170.
You don’t know what you’ve been charged for,” Kid Rock said. “But, more
importantly, the bots, you know, they come in, they get all the good
tickets to your favorite shows you want to go to, and then they’re
relisted immediately for sometimes 400-500% markup.”
The order mostly directs federal agencies to enforce existing laws.
Still, it marks a rare instance of policy crossover with the
administration of Democratic President Joe Biden, which used the FTC to
target “ junk fees,” or levies tacked on at the end of the purchase
process that can mask the full price of things like concert tickets,
hotel rooms and utility bills.
Under Biden, the Justice Department also sued Ticketmaster and its
parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, last year. It accused them of
running an illegal monopoly over live events and asked a court to break
up the system that squelches competition and drives up prices for fans.
Live Nation said Monday evening that “scalpers and bots prevent fans
from getting tickets at the prices artists set, and we thank President
Trump for taking them head-on."
“We support any meaningful resale reforms,” the company said in a
statement, adding that that included backing caps on resale prices. Live
Nation CEO Michael Rapino also thanked Trump and Kid Rock in a post on
X.
Those companies have a history of clashing with major artists, including
Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift. whose summer 2022 stadium tour was
plagued by difficulty getting tickets. Country music star Zach Bryan
even released a 2022 album titled “All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster.”
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President Donald Trump waves as he walks down the stairs of Air
Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, March
30, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
 A representative for Bryan said he
had “nothing to add” when asked to comment on the executive order.
The Biden administration used such initiatives as a
way to protect consumers from rising prices that were already
inflated. Trump, meanwhile, campaigned on combating high ticket
prices, calling them “very unfortunate.”
Kid Rock, known for hits like “Cowboy” and “Bawitdaba,” called
Trump's order a ”great first step” and said he'd eventually like to
see a cap on resale prices on tickets — while quickly adding, “I’m a
capitalist.” He also said he'd spoken to Ticketmaster, which he
described as “on board" with the change.
The White House says America’s live concert and entertainment
industry has a total nationwide economic impact of $132.6 billion
and supports 913,000 jobs, "But it has become blighted by
unscrupulous middle-men who impose egregious fees on fans with no
benefit to artists,” according to a fact sheet it released Monday.
Trump’s order further directs federal officials and the FTC to
deliver a report in six months “summarizing actions taken to address
the issue of unfair practices in the live concert and entertainment
industry and recommend additional regulations or legislation needed
to protect consumers in this industry.”
“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,” the White House face
sheet said.
It also noted that higher prices don't mean additional profits for
artists but instead go “solely to the scalper and the ticketing
agency.”
Kid Rock agreed that such markups don't benefit artists like
himself, then chuckled while offering, “I’ll be the first one to
say, and I know the president doesn’t like when I say this, but, I’m
a little overpaid right now.”
“It’s kind of ridiculous. I would rather be, you know, a hero to
working-class people and have them be able to come attend my shows
and give them a fair ticket price,” he said. “I can’t control that
right now so hopefully this is a step to make that happen.”
___
Associated Press writer Maria Sherman contributed to this report
from New York.
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