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.
JaredMacBride
So what?
GabrielKing1660
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porque_loco
If you don’t care, why’d ya click?
rustyiam
Some people can’t handle the truth:)
Juanjo
What truth is that, Miss Thing?
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
They have been supportive, so gonna give ’em a pass…
PinkoOfTheGange
All this pearl clutching can’t be good for them.
truthseeker
This reminds me of George Orwell’s 1984 where people were punished for “thought crimes”
porque_loco
Exactly… that’s why Trump insults, humiliates and screams “Fake News” any time someone questions something he says or tweets. Those are ThoughtCrimes to Dear Leader.
MichaelC.Oliveira
They’re being called out, it is a basic right here in the US. Although the deleting of news/tweets does remind of the rewriting of the “news” in 1984..
IWantAFullBeard
Do you know the difference between a thought and writing something down?
DarkZephyr
I DO want to point out that sometimes, in the recent past on Twitter, when we have responded to certain tweets, Twitter has notified followers that we “liked” them. Like times when I have responded to some of Trump’s idiocy, it has notified my followers that I “liked” them when I absolutely DID NOT and I have seen that happen to several other resisters. I do think its unlikely that this is what has happened here, but its possible. Twitter does screw up sometimes.
IWantAFullBeard
If you are against immigration, then surely you must be against migrating your opinion across national lines.
Hypocrisy usually requires people this stupid.
Brian
Your logic is a little (completely) faulty.
IWantAFullBeard
Brian – Great response! You made an astounding point. Now stfu.
Aires the Ram
The article stated: “falsely terming Latin American refugees “illegals””
If they come across the border ILLEGALLY, they are “illegals”.
The article stated: “Puerto Rico “one of the most corrupt places on Earth” re: a Trump tweet
It is.
The article stated: “incendiary and somewhat racist tweets”.
So if you say crossing the border ‘illegally’ is ‘illegal’, that’s “incendiary” now? Bulls*&i^t
So if you say people crossing the border ‘illegally’ is ‘illegal’, it’s also ‘racist’? Bulls*&i^t
The article stated: “a president whose rhetoric inspires violence against people of color”.
Where’s the proof of that? waiting………….
The article stated: “whose administration has done more to roll back LGBTQ rights than any other in modern history.”
Name me the “rights” that have been ‘rolled back’ in the past 2 1/2 years. waiting…….
Fact: There have been no rights for homosexuals that have been ‘rolled back’ in “modern history”, if you can think back beyond last week, and perhaps pick up a history book, you’d find that in the last 30 years or so, we’ve GAINED rights. Are we done yet? No Is it perfect? No. But if you’d like to go back to 1975 and live in a rural part of this country, or a small town or city, I gladly invite you to do so. Those of us on here who lived through those times, look at you who have no memory or education previous to last week, as you continually demonstrate, look like complete uneducated fools to us who’ve live through previous times. Do some research. At your fingertips is a gateway to most any and all information you may want to look up. Educate yourselves.