A video of Oculus founder Palmer Luckey attending a Donald Trump rally earlier this year is now being circulated online, after the Oculus Rift creator claimed that he did not support the Republican presidential candidate.
Luckey sent out an apology via Facebook last week, after it was revealed by The Daily Beast that he was the secret donor behind the pro-Donald Trump group Nimble America. Luckey’s involvement with the group garnered a great deal of controversy, with many VR developers revealing that they had retracted their support of the Oculus Rift headset as a result, leading to Luckey claiming that The Daily Beast‘s story did not “accurately represent” his views, adding: “I am a libertarian who has publicly supported Ron Paul and Gary Johnson in the past, and I plan on voting for Gary in this election as well.” However, a video of a Trump rally recorded back in April shows Luckey in attendance, with the multi-millionaire wearing a “Can’t Stump The Trump” t-shirt while discussing anti-Trump protests that were taking place following the rally.
You can see Luckey discussing the aftermath of Trump’s Costa Mesa rally below at the 1:52 mark:
Luckey’s support of Nimble America was widely criticized online. While Trump’s divisive political campaign means that many deem supporting the presidential candidate a controversial move in and of itself, the story behind Nimble America made Luckey’s donation to the campaign even more unfortunate.
Initially pitched to Donald Trump’s unofficial subreddit r/The_Donald, which has attracted its own fair share of criticisms in the past for housing bigoted posts and comments throughout the Trump presidential campaign, even pro-Trump users of the forum were skeptical of the group’s legitimacy. Vocally supported by Milo Yiannopoulos, a right-wing tech reporter who was previously suspended from Twitter following the racist abuse of Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones, the group’s mission statement outside of its vague support of Trump was unclear, leading many Trump voters to claim that it was a scam coordinated between Yiannopoulos and the subreddit’s moderators. Allegedly posting under the name NimbleRichMan, Luckey later addressed r/The_Donald’s users personally, writing: “I am doing everything I can to help make America great again.”
Luckey refuted The Daily Beast‘s claim that he was behind the NimbleRichMan account, but the post’s author Gideon Resnick later posted a series of screenshots allegedly showing a series of emails sent by Luckey, in which he states his involvement with the NimbleRichMan username:
One more email: Luckey clearly states in here that the NimbleRichMan account represents him. pic.twitter.com/RC4mXPFDkM
— Gideon Resnick (@GideonResnick) September 24, 2016
Unfortunately for Luckey, the reappearance of the video showing him present at the Trump rally only adds further credibility to the claims that he wasn’t being truthful in his apology post.
