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AussieBum ‘likes’ Trump’s tweets calling refugees ‘illegals’ and Puerto Rico ‘corrupt’ then recants
AussieBum— the Australian-based underwear and swimwear brand known for popping up in gay adult videos and supporting marriage equality down under — has a Twitter account that’s mostly just images of dudes wearing their apparel.
But an eagle-eyed Twitter user found that this weekend the brand liked seven August 28 tweets from President Donald Trump falsely terming Latin American refugees “illegals,” The Washington Post “fake news” and Puerto Rico “one of the most corrupt places on Earth” (second only to Russia and the U.S., right Donald?).
When Queerty reached out to AussieBum for comment, asking why their official account liked these incendiary and somewhat racist tweets, the brand didn’t respond, but merely un-liked the tweets sometime later and eventually issued an apology claiming their account had been “compromised.”
Naturally, it reflects poorly when a brand targeting gay men supports a president whose rhetoric inspires violence against people of color and whose administration has done more to roll back LGBTQ rights than any other in modern history.
One Twitter user made a video showing the brand’s “liking” of Trump’s tweets:
Hey all. @aussieBum seems to support fascism. There’s better underwear out there anyway. pic.twitter.com/g8VktxCp4F
— The Great British Blake Off (@blake_nikolasx) September 1, 2019
There are several possibilities to explain why AussieBum liked Trump’s tweets:
#1. They were hacked: I mean… maybe?
#2. Social media illiteracy: Some tech-unsavvy Trump-loving employee in charge of AussieBum’s Twitter account mistakenly thought they were “liking” Trump’s tweets from their personal account which shows bad judgment and poor taste.
#3. The company loves Trump and his policies: But not enough to withstand people drawing attention to it. This too seems unlikely, but hey… stranger things have happened. Perhaps there’s a plan to start marketing to gay Republicans and become the official underwear of Straight Pride?
Hours later, the company responded to upset Twitter users with the following message:
Hi there- sorry for this! We found out that our account was compromised for a short period of time and someone thought it was funny to like Donald Trump. We have now corrected this and secured our account. Cheers, aussieBum Team
It’s unclear if “compromised” means “hacked,” but it’s odd to think that someone would hack them just to like Trump’s tweets. Perhaps a rival underwear brand sought to ruin their credibility in a bit of underwhelming corporate espionage.
So cutthroat, the dangerous world of men’s undies.
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