Oculus founder and CEO Palmer Luckey has been outed as the secret donor to the Donald Trump meme group Nimble America, with the near-billionaire revealed as the man behind the previously anonymous account ‘NimbleRichMan.’
Nimble America is a group that aims to support Donald Trump’s presidential campaign by way of memes and erecting billboards, with its backers previously having taken to the unofficial Trump campaign subreddit r/The_Donald in order to attract donations. However, users of the notoriously divisive subreddit were quick to distance themselves from the group, flooding its announcement post with accusations of it being a scam.
However, it’s now been confirmed that Palmer Luckey is the rich donor supporting Nimble America, with The Daily Beast confirming his involvement with the group. Discussing the reasoning behind financially aiding the group, Luckey said: “I’ve got plenty of money. Money is not my issue. I thought it sounded like a real jolly good time.”
Luckey reportedly garnered $700 million after Oculus was bought by Facebook for $2 billion, though Luckey is technically not a Facebook employee. Posting under the pseudonym NimbleRichMan, which The Daily Beast reports is his alternate Reddit account, Luckey wrote in a post asking r/The_Donald for donations: “I reached out to the leaders of this community because I am doing everything I can to help make America great again. I have already donated significant funds to Nimble America, and will continue to do so. I need your help. For the next 48 hours, I will match your donations dollar for dollar. Donate ten dollars and I will match you by flying my jet a minute less. Donate a hundred and I will match you by skipping a glass of scotch. Donate a thousand and I will match by putting off the tire change on my car. Am I bragging? Will people be offended? Yes, but those people already hate Donald. They cannot stand to see successful people who are proud of their success.”
He concluded: “Let’s generate some success of our own. Make America great again with your meme magic, centipedes of The Donald!”
Nimble America backer Milo Yiannopoulos. (Image Credit: Instagram.com/milo.yiannopoulos)
Following The Daily Beast‘s article, the NimbleRichMan account was deleted from Reddit along with its listing on the Nimble America website.
Although a high-profile figure supporting Trump could be deemed controversial in and of itself given the current political climate and the divisive reaction to the GOP candidate, the main reason for contention is that Luckey has now affiliated himself with unsavory individuals such as Milo Yiannopolous, a Nimble America backer who was recently ousted from Twitter following the racist abuse of actress and comedian Leslie Jones. Yiannopolous’ account was suspended on the social network after posting a series of tweets about Jones, including one containing the phrase “bix nood,” which references an incredibly racist cartoon which brands black people “a race that can’t speak anything but unintelligible gibberish.”
Then there’s r/The_Donald, a subreddit that is ostensibly for supporters of Donald Trump to coalesce, but whose members have been seen spouting bigoted rhetoric on more than one occasion. Although r/The_Donald initially began as a destination for prospective Trump voters to discuss the Republican candidate’s policies, eventually it became overrun by channer culture and now exists as a hybrid of discussion pertaining to Trump, memes and, on the abhorrent end of the spectrum, racist and sexist vitriol.
A subreddit has even been created in retaliation to r/The_Donald, with r/EnoughTrumpSpam being formed as a result of r/The_Donald users mass upvoting Trump memes to the front page of Reddit, but now existing mainly to point out the bigoted comments made by some of its members:
It’s difficult to ascertain Nimble America’s plans outside of billboards and “meme magic,” which appears to be limited to astroturfing Reddit with Trump support, but Luckey’s involvement with the campaign could well have unfortunate ramifications for Oculus. Given that any mention of NimbleRichMan has now been removed from the group’s site, it seems that Luckey is retroactively considering that putting his public reputation on the line for the sake of a billboard may have been a bad idea.
