Kyle Rittenhouse surprised fans by revealing he wouldn’t be voting for Donald Trump in November’s election.
The 21-year-old – who fatally shot two people during a Black Live Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisc. – said he was instead backing Libertarian candidate Ron Paul.
In a video posted to X on Thursday, Rittenhouse said: ‘Unfortunately Donald Trump had bad advisers making him bad on the Second Amendment, and that is my issue.’
Rittenhouse, who was embraced 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 cannot be completely uncompromisable on the Second Amendment, I will not vote for you and I will write somebody else in.’
The conservative star claimed at the time that Trump’s team surrounding him was making him weak on gun laws.
‘Unfortunately Donald Trump had bad advisers making him bad on the Second Amendment, and that is my issue,’ Rittenhouse said.
Some pro-Trump influencers online shared their disgust at Rittenhouse, saying he owed Trump more for defending him after the shootings.
Humorist Chad Prather wrote: ‘Oh well, Kyle I regret to inform you that I will no longer be one of your guests on September 12 at the TXGR event. I reckon you can write in someone else. This was not the way, bud.’
Others claimed that voting third party was simply a vote for Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris.
Perhaps in response, Rittenhouse went back on his statement in a separate post to the social media platform on Friday.
‘Over the past 12 hours, I’ve had a series of productive conversations with members of the Trump’s team and I am confident he will be the strong ally gun owners need to defend our Second Amendment rights,’ he wrote.
‘My comments made last night were ill-informed and unproductive. I’m 100% behind Donald Trump and encourage every gun owner to join me in helping send him back to the White House.’
He was just 17 when he showed up to the chaotic protest the followed the shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed black man shot seven times by a white policeman at a traffic stop, rendering him paralyzed.
Rittenhouse said he was there with a group of locals defending businesses from looting, and was carrying the assault rifle strapped to his shoulder.
He shot Joseph Rosenbaum four times after the man threw a bag of clothing at him and grabbed the barrel of his rifle.
Rittenhouse then fled and was pursued by a crowd when Huber caught up to him, hit him with a skateboard, and tried to wrestle away the rifle. He was shot once.
In court, he argued 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 U.S.
Rittenhouse after his acquittal appeared on several right-wing talk shows, met Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and gave speeches for TPUSA.
His image was used to sell everything from guns to clothing and 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.’
Rittenhouse is thought to have moved to a plush gated community in Houston after taking up a job as Outreach Director for Second Amendment lobby group Texas Gun Rights and launching his media career.
His gun group lobbied hard ahead of the Supreme Court’s ruling last week which struck down the Trump-era federal ban on bump stocks.
‘Time to go celebrate and buy a bump stock!’ he tweeted before adding: ‘Next step, Make America Full-Auto again!’