Trump dating site is entirely strange
Website seemingly limited to straight, white users featured a sex offender
Trump.dating is an odd site, and not just because it featured a convicted sex offender’s smiling face on its homepage. More on that shortly.
It’s strange in nearly every way a dating site could be strange. Its allcaps slogan — “MAKE DATING GREAT AGAIN! FIND YOUR PROTRUMP MATCH TODAY” — may be the least weird thing about it.
The site’s premise, at least, makes some sense: “Like-minded people have a far better chance at success in a relationship,” as a news release announcing the site’s launch put it this month.
“Users can rest assured every person they are talking to is behind the president, with red, white, and blue blood that flows for America each and every day.”
Nothing wrong with that. Who wants to have a border-wall argument over wine? But Trump.dating’s peculiarities begin to surface with the first mouse click, and never stop. The common denominator among users is supposed to be that they, unlike most opinion poll respondents, support U.S. President Donald Trump. But try to register and the first thing you’re asked is whether you’re a “Straight Man” or “Straight Woman.”
Gay people (let alone bisexual, transgender and/or queer) simply don’t exist in the menus.
While Trump is certainly loathed by many gay rights supporters, mainly for policies rolling back freedoms and protections of transgender people, he definitely has gay fans.
But being gay is simply not an option on Trump.dating, which is not the only conservative matchmaking site to exclude LGBTQ people. You’re either a man seeking women, or a woman seeking men.
You can, however, specify a romantic interest in “military men/women” regardless of your gender. So Trump.dating appears to tolerate a very specific form of bi-curiosity.
As of Monday, Trump.dating’s poster photo showed an authentic proTrump couple from North Carolina: Jodi Riddleberger in a pink MAGA hat, and her husband, Barrett, whom the News & Observer subsequently reported has a 1995 conviction for “indecent liberties with a child.”
Barrett Riddleberger didn’t respond to requests for comment, but his conviction was common knowledge in Guilford County, N.C., where he and his wife are active in local politics. He was accused of videotaping himself having sex with a15-yearold when he was 25, according to the Greensboro News & Record. When details of the crime went public during a race in 2011, Jodi Riddleberger wrote on Facebook that her husband had since undergone “Redemption.”
As of Tuesday, the Riddleberger’s photo had undergone a retraction from Trump.dating’s homepage. .
“The couple’s history was not revealed to us in anyway beforehand or while the photo was live on the site,” Trump.dating spokesperson Sean McGrossler wrote in a statement. “They are not spokesmodels. They are not spokespersons.”
The statement also mentioned that a previous version of the site incorrectly allowed married Trump supporters to look for dates.