Kyle Rittenhouse shocked his fans by revealing that he would not vote for Donald Trump in the November election.
The 21-year-old, who fatally shot two people during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, said he instead supported Libertarian candidate Ron Paul.
In a video posted on X on Thursday, Rittenhouse said: “Unfortunately, Donald Trump had bad advisors who made him bad on the Second Amendment, and that’s my problem.”
Rittenhouse, who was hugged by Trump after shooting three men during a 2020 protest against police brutality in Wisconsin, won’t be returning the favor with his vote this fall.
“If you can’t be completely uncompromising on the Second Amendment, I won’t vote for you and I’ll nominate someone else.”
Kyle Rittenhouse surprised his followers by revealing that he will not vote for Donald Trump in the November elections
The 21-year-old Kenosha shooter said he instead supported Libertarian candidate Ron Paul despite having Trump’s backing during his trial.
The conservative star claimed at the time that the Trump team around him was undermining him on gun laws.
“Unfortunately, Donald Trump had bad advisers who made him bad on the Second Amendment, and that’s my problem,” Rittenhouse said.
Some influential Trump supporters shared their disgust with Rittenhouse online, saying he owed Trump more for defending him after the shootings.
Comedian Chad Prather wrote: ‘Well Kyle, I’m sorry to inform you that I will no longer be one of your guests on September 12th at the TXGR event. I guess you can fit someone else in. That wasn’t the way, man.’
Others claimed that voting for a third party was simply voting for Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris.
Perhaps in response, Rittenhouse retracted his statement in a separate post on the social media platform on Friday.
“Over the past 12 hours, I have had a series of productive conversations with members of the Trump team and am confident that they will be the strong ally that gun owners need to defend our Second Amendment rights,” he wrote.
“The comments I made last night were unproductive and ill-informed. I support Donald Trump 100% and encourage all gun owners to join me in helping send him back to the White House.”
Rittenhouse retracted his statement in a separate post on the social media platform on Friday.
She was just 17 when she showed up at the chaotic protest that followed the shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed black man who was shot seven times by a white police officer during a traffic stop, leaving him paralyzed.
Rittenhouse said he was there with a group of locals defending businesses from looting and that he had the assault rifle strapped to his shoulder.
He shot Joseph Rosenbaum four times after the man threw a bag of clothes at him and grabbed the barrel of his rifle.
Rittenhouse fled and was pursued by a crowd. Huber caught up with him, hit him with a skateboard and tried to take his rifle. He was shot.
In court, he argued that he opened fire in self-defense after the men attacked him. The case became a flashpoint in the debate over guns, vigilantism and racial injustice in the United States.
After his acquittal, Rittenhouse appeared on several right-wing talk shows, met with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and gave speeches for TPUSA.
His image was used to sell everything from guns to clothing to video games, and became a popular meme among right-wing social media users.
Trump defended Rittenhouse at the time of the shootings and congratulated him after the verdict, saying, “If that’s not self-defense, nothing is.”
Some pro-Trump influencers online shared their displeasure with Rittenhouse, saying he owed Trump more for defending him after the shootings.
Rittenhouse is believed to have moved into a luxury gated community in Houston after taking a job as Outreach Director for the Second Amendment lobby group Texas Gun Rights and launching his media career.
His gun rights group lobbied intensively ahead of the Supreme Court’s ruling last week that struck down the Trump-era federal ban on bump stocks.
“Time to go celebrate and buy some bump stock!” he tweeted before adding: “Next step, make America fully automatic again!”
