CLAIM: Performers Kid Rock and Jason Aldean removed all New York shows from their “You Can’t Cancel America” tour in support of former President Donald Trump.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The claim originated on a satirical news website that describes its content as “fiction.” There is no such tour — the pair’s “Rock the Country” tour, which begins in April, never included any stops in New York. Aldean’s concurrent “Highway Desperado Tour” started in July 2023 and has already included multiple shows in the state with more scheduled this year.
THE FACTS: Following an order in New York requiring former President Donald Trump to pay $355 million in penalties for lying about his wealth, social media users erroneously claimed that Kid Rock and Aldean, both public Trump supporters, had scrapped their Empire State tour dates in solidarity.
Many are sharing posts that include a screenshot of a headline that reads: “Kid Rock and Jason Aldean Remove New York from the ‘You Can’t Cancel America’ Tour: ‘We Support 45.’”
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“BREAKING HILARITY: #MAGAMorons Kid Rock and Jason Aldean just announced they will cancel New York from their ‘You can’t cancel America’ tour,” reads one post on X. “Pure. Comedy. Gold.” It had received about 13,000 likes and 5,900 shares as of Wednesday.
But the headline comes from an article on Dunning-Kruger-Times.com, a website that labels itself as satire and whose content is often mistaken as real. Its domain refers to the Dunning-Kruger effect, a cognitive bias concept in which people with little knowledge in a given area overestimate what they know.
“Dunning-Kruger-Times.com is a subsidiary of the ‘America’s Last Line of Defense’ network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery,” the site’s About Us page reads. “Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real.”
Moreover, there is no “You Can’t Cancel America” tour. Kid Rock and Aldean are headlining a “Rock the Country” tour starting in April with seven stops in Louisiana, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Missouri and South Carolina. No shows have been added to the tour since it was announced in November.
Aldean’s “Highway Desperado Tour” has had two shows in New York since it began in July 2023. Four additional New York shows are planned for the summer of 2024.
Among other clues that the story was bogus is the fact that it quotes “Joe Barron,” who it claims is president of the “Kid Rock Fan Club.” Dunning-Kruger-Times.com frequently uses this name in its satirical posts.
The Associated Press has previously debunked stories that originated from the same network of satirical sites, but were spread as real.
New York Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump on Friday to pay $335 million in penalties for scheming to dupe banks, insurers and others by inflating his wealth on financial statements. In addition to the former president, the civil fraud verdict punishes his company and executives, including his two eldest sons.___This is part of the AP’s effort to address widely shared false and misleading information that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.