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Jack Black’s Tenacious D partner Kyle Gass is facing criticism for a joke he made about Donald Trump’s assassination attempt hours after the incident.
The comedy rock duo were performing at the ICC Sydney Theatre in Australia on Saturday (July 13) after the former president was shot in the ear at his Pennsylvania rally earlier that day.
In celebration of Gass’s 64th birthday, which fell on Sunday (July 14), Black, 54, presented him with a cake on stage.
“Make a wish,” the School of Rock star can be heard telling Gass in footage shared on TikTok.
As Gass blew out the candles, he said: “Don’t miss Trump next time.”
One audience member told Yahoo News that “you could hear a couple of ‘oohhs’ – like too soon sort of vibes – but the vast majority was laughter.”
On social media, numerous users condemned Gass’s joke, which they took to be in bad taste.
“Promoting murder of a political figure is absolutely disgusting,” one person wrote on TikTok.
“So sorry we have such disappointment and disrespect for anyone’s life and family,” another said. “What if it had been your family member shot at?”
“Not funny,” a third stated.
“A Father died protecting his daughter & others were injured during it, these people are disgusting,” another person wrote on X.
Trump was speaking at a political rally over the weekend when he was shot at by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks in an assassination attempt on the former president’s life.
Crooks, who was a registered Republican, fired eight shots, killing one person in the crowd and injuring at least two more besides Trump, before he was killed by a sniper.
The gunman’s motive remains unclear, although the FBI is currently conducting a thorough investigation into the shooting as a possible act of domestic terrorism.
In his first interview following the incident, Trump told The New York Post that he “should be dead.”
“The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle,” he said. “I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead. I’m supposed to be dead.”
Later that evening, country singer Jason Aldean dedicated his controversial 2023 hit “Try That in a Small Town” to his “friend” Trump.
“Just goes to show you there’s a lot of bulls*** in the world, and that’s kind of what this song right here was about, so this one goes out to the Pres,” Aldean told the crowd.
