Kid Rock was a visitor on a US army helicopter ‘joyride’ with Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, report claims | EUROtoday

Fresh out of 1 scandal involving an AH-64 Apache helicopter gunship, Kid Rock has allegedly been handled to a private joyride from the ‘secretary of battle’ himself.

The pro-Trump rock star obtained to fly within the gunner’s seat of certainly one of America’s deadliest army machines together with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday morning, in keeping with investigative reporter Ryan Grim of Drop Site News.

The two males every rode separate choppers, Grim reported, flying from Fort Belvoir on the outskirts of Washington D.C. It’s not but clear who paid for the journey — or whether or not American taxpayers footed the invoice.

It comes after Hegseth personally intervened to carry the suspensions of a bunch of helicopter pilots who had been pulled from obligation after hovering beside the MAGA musician’s Nashville-area house in an obvious tribute on March 28.

The White House, the Department of Defense, and Kid Rock’s agent didn’t instantly reply to questions fromThe Independent about who paid for Monday’s flight or why it occurred.

California’s outspoken Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom was unimpressed, saying: “Why are taxpayers paying to fly Kid Rock around on $100 million helicopters?”

The AH-64 Apache is the U.S. army’s important assault helicopter, sometimes armed with a robust 30mm nose-mounted auto-cannon and anti-tank missiles. Each one prices an estimated tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to construct, and reportedly prices upwards of $5,000 per hour to function.

In an Instagram video posted by Kid Rock’s supervisor Cory Gierman earlier this month, Rock — actual identify Robert James Ritchie — referred to as the March flyby a “helicopter performance” given to him as a “gift” and a “tribute”.

“I stood by the swimming pool to return the gesture, and I filmed it and I posted it online because I wanted to tell those hypocrites that this is what America should look like,” claimed the longtime Trump supporter.

Afterwards, Hegseth introduced: “Suspension LIFTED. No punishment. No investigation. Carry on, patriots. 🇺🇸”

Drop Site News referred to Monday’s reported jaunt as an “incentive flight”, and Grim mentioned that Kid Rock had flown to Fort Belvoir on his personal jet.

Grim added that Apache gunships usually are not sometimes stationed at Fort Belvoir, so it is unclear the place they initially had been primarily based.