The celebrity circles surrounding the second Trump administration are pretty thin. Sylvester Stallone, Jon Voight, Adam Sandler’s close friend Rob Schneider and a scant few others support the President in ways loud and quiet. But other than pop star Nicki Minaj, whose residence in Trumpistan has caused a lot of head-scratching, no entertainment celebrity occupies a more prominent place in the MAGA firmament than the musician Robert Ritchie, better known to the world as Kid Rock. “I call him Bob,” Trump once said.

Kid Rock, the second most famous white rapper from Detroit, has long been in Trump’s social circles. He was a guest at Mar-a-Lago before either he or Trump became political figures. Though he grew up in Romeo, Michigan, an affluent rural town about 40 miles from Detroit proper, Kid Rock has often referred to himself as a “son of Detroit” and owns a clothing brand called “Made In Detroit.”

He made his name as a DJ and rapper in the late 1980s and early 1990s, releasing an album called Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast. That album, along with a band called Twisted Brown Trucker, didn’t quite take. But Kid Rock exploded in 1998 with a diamond Atlantic Records release, Devil Without a Cause, which included breakout hits such as “Cowboy” and “Bawitdaba.” These successes made him a star in the late-1990s rap-metal explosion.

Almost immediately afterward, he switched gears and became a Southern rock artist, releasing a duet with Sheryl........

© The Spectator