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.”
Didn’t George Floyd get murdered because he paid with a counterfeit? And assholes like this are proud of it.
No. George Floyd was murdered because an asshole cop thought he could choke him out with impunity
But why were the police even called?
Before the police were called, Martin and his co-workers made two trips to the SUV that Floyd was sitting in outside Cup Foods, trying to get him to come back to the store, Martin said. He recalled telling Floyd and his friends that the bill Floyd had just used was fake, and that his boss wanted to talk to him.
All I’m saying is, the consequences aren’t as simple as “some homeless lowlife goes to jail lol” like the guy in the article seems to feel in his heart. Sometimes a counterfeit bill results in a 9- minute long public execution followed months of societal pain.
ETA: Johnny McEntee! That’s the asshole’s name. Johnny McEntee is the asshole that is trying to get homeless people into situations involving police over counterfeit money. Police that sometimes decide murder is a best path to justice for poor people with counterfeit money legal issus. Fuck that guy.
Well that’s what the situation escalated to, yes, but what was the instigating factor. I know cops really don’t need one in practice, but usually they at least make one up.
That’s a very interesting question you’re asking. Does the guilt lie with the police for the murder, or with the person that put him in the path of the cops? If you set a dog on children, and they get horribly mauled, is it the dogs fault? Does the guilt lie with the person pulling the switch, or with the lunatic that tied them to the trolley tracks in the first place?
I understand why the op here would reframe that question, as it could quite reasonably be interpreted as shifting responsibility for their actions away from the (quite guilty) cops. It’s still a good question to ask though, especially in the current context of someone intentionally trying to dangle vulnerable people in front of the cops like a steak to a guard dog.
(Personally I think guilt lies with everyone, but that calculating the exact degree of EDIT (for clarity): I mean calculating each individual person’s guilt, as in all of society. Just to clarify that the cops are absolutely guilty. But calculating the guilt of everyone in society is impossible.)
A key point in your statement is ‘person’. Though it’s not universal, humans are understood to have better… Well, understanding of their actions. A vicious dog doesn’t understand that they’re vicious, they just rip and tear. A human is supposed to have that inner monologue to say “No.”
So, you release a dangerous animal on someone, you’re at fault. You kill someone, you’re at fault.
In George Floyd’s case, the cop is responsible. 1000%. I’ve been in situations, I’ve pointed a gun and I waited. Even when someone might be rigged to blow, you don’t just shoot them. Whomever called the cops isn’t responsible because the Cop should’ve been expected to be a human and not some deity who can do no wrong. Yes, everyone in America at this point should know that cops aren’t your friend but some people don’t know that.
(I was taking a bit of a jab at cops by implying they aren’t capable of free agency, which could have been more clear.)
I’m not sure if you understood my point. An absolutist approach isn’t representative of the real world, which is fine because representations don’t have to be perfect (by definition, I think). The question isn’t where do you draw the line, as with all trolley problem questions it’s why do you draw the line. Did the person who called the cops get him killed? Well, in an absolutist view, yes they did. They put him in the situation to get him killed. The cops are also guilty of killing him, as is the person who made the hypothetical counterfiet money.
But since we do not live in a truly accurate representation nor too a strict absolutist one, where do we draw that line? Its not a question of where in the legal code do we draw that line, or if their behavior was excusable or inexcusable, it’s a question about how we determine the answer to those questions.
When someone commits crimes it is legal, ethical, moral, and reasonable that you call the cops on them. It’s also reasonable to expect that the cops arrest them not summarily execute them. You can’t make the people responsible for the cops behavior.
You are taking this a great deal more literally than I intended for it to be taken. This is a hypothetical question that asks how we decided that it is legal, ethical moral etc. to call the cops. It’s not a question about the specifics of this case except where they serve to exemplify the concepts.
… I could have been more explicit about that, I realize.
It is legal ethical moral and reasonable to call the cops because it is the only practical way to make people stop breaking the law. If the cops don’t want to be prosecuted or hated they can stop overreacting and hurting people. If the people want to avoid the risk of excess harm they can stop committing crimes or vote for politicians who hold cops accountable. None of this is my problem.
Alternate headline: Vapid idiot brags about his incessant need to punch down in order to sexually perform
crimes against fellow Americans
FTFY
He doesn’t consider them to be fellow Americans.
So he’s a counterfeiter? I’m sorry, isn’t that a federal crime?
Strangely enough, the secret service covers stolen and counterfeit money
I learned that from Fallout 76, with the gold billions!
I’m on the fence, loved Fallout 4 though, should I play 76?
The whole thing stinks as schoolboy level revenge fantasy. I doubt there’s truth to it.
Prop money has specific laws and guidelines and is very easily identifiable and therefore do not count as counterfeit.
If a $5 bill does find its way in the economy no one gets arrested probably, someone just made a stupid trade. Otherwise half the store owners would be in jail when attempting to deposit money that happens to contain a fake note here and there.
Manufacturing prop money for movie purposes isn’t illegal. Passing it as legal tender IS. Note that passing and creating are 2 separate crimes. Notably even though he is giving it away he has specifically stated that the aim of this scheme is for it to be used for commerce by unwitting victims.
I got passed a fake $100 as a pizza delivery driver one time. Some secret service agents came to my store a few days later, and asked me about where I got it. They took the information I had, and continued their investigation to get to the person that made the thing. It was easy to tell them where I got it. That was the only $100 bill I had been handed in weeks.
Uhm that’s why the secret service was notified.
Not everyone knows that the Secret Service also investigates counterfeiting crimes.
Very disgusting. Glad the Secret Service has been notified.
Like the movement it grew out of. trumpism is designed to be cruel. To be Sadistic. To be brutal. To be heartless. It is not a flaw in their thinking. It is a purposely chosen tactic. As it is something that is desired it will never be punished
How is this different from the assholes that spread these as “tips”?
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.
You’re right that no one would think they were real. When i worked at McDonald’s the bastards would pay this at the back window and try and zoom forward and get their food from the next window before the confused money taker could let the person handing out the food know lol
Not that anyone thought it was real though. You’re definitely still correct
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?
You just activated my fight or flight
I think the venn diagram closely resembles a single circle.
What a weird coincidence. I posted this same image in an entirely different thread yesterday.
Well, it was the best pic I could find in Google. :)
Right, but it was on a totally different subject. Religious “tippers” in restaurants.
The video in question, since links in the article lead to nothing
So another of Trump’s sycophants is committing crime that will get him arrested while Trump (who may or may not be behind or endorse the crime) gets away without consequences. How very typical.
And If memory serves, wasn’t the secret service originally invented to fight fraud? Either counterfeiting, mail fraud, or something?
Arrest this dumb fucker and throw away the key
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.
They don’t care. The only way for a Trump aide to get fired is to mock them on SNL.
This guy has been getting the piss mocked out of him on TikTok for months. Every video he makes and every comment section is filled with people shitposting about Five Nights at Freddie’s - it’s pretty funny.
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.
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)
It’s absolutely not legal. But you’d need a lawyer, and the homeless don’t have a lawyer. The wealthy and well to do love this trick… Punching down is kind of their thing.
Hollywood money is highly regulated, and secret service is very strict about it. Adam Savage recently made a YouTube vid about movie money, which has stories about the secret service at the beginning of the video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=drLzVcgnBfI
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
He only knows the best people.
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