Arts & Entertainment

Clay Aiken thinks Donald Trump will ‘probably’ win

‘American Idol’ alum fears U.S. could have ‘clown president’

Published

10 years ago

July 28, 2016

Mariah Cooper

(Screenshot via YouTube)

Clay Aiken revealed on Chelsea Handler’s Netflix talk show “Chelsea,” he believes Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump could be the next U.S. president.

Aiken was joined on a panel by fellow former “Celebrity Apprentice” contestants NeNe Leakes, Khloé Kardashian and Lisa Lampanelli to discuss their time on the show and Trump’s possible presidency. Aiken told the group he plans to vote for Hillary Clinton, but thinks a Trump win isn’t too far off from reality.

“This campaign for him I don’t think is about being president,” Aiken says. “I think it’s about having 100% name recognition, about being able to say he won, which I think he probably will do.”

The 2014 Democratic congressional nominee compared his experience running for North Carolina’s 2nd congressional district election to Trump’s current election.

“One of the things I found interesting as I was running [was that] Republicans would come to me and say, ‘I’m going to vote for you just because I’m sick and tired of politicians.’ And that I think is the question this year… I think that those folks who don’t like politicians are more motivated to vote. As much as it pains me to say it, I think that Hillary Clinton doesn’t inspire people enough to get folks off their asses on November 8 to go and vote,” Aiken says.

Aiken concluded that he fears sitting back and doing nothing could put the U.S. in a similar situation to England’s political strife.

“We say Hillary has no chance of losing, Trump’s never going to be president and people continue to say that and they will stay home and it’ll end up being like Brexit in England where we end up having a clown president for four years.”

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Online Culture

Clavicular charged in alleged rape of teenage influencer

Online personality’s real name is Braden Peters

Published

8 hours ago

September 23, 2026

Joe Reberkenny

Braden Peters a.k.a. "Clavicular" (Screen capture via NBC News/YouTube)

Online personality Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Peters, has been accused of rape.

According to NBC, Aleksandra Vasilevna Mendoza, an 18-year-old influencer known online as Alorah or Alorah Ziva, accused Peters of sexual assault, and the case is making its way through the court system.

The alleged incident occurred on May 23, 2025, when Mendoza was 17.

According to a criminal complaint from the Chatham (Mass.) Police Department, Peters called her an Uber to his family’s home. Once there, he allegedly got her drunk on vodka while they livestreamed on Twitch and then raped her. His mother and grandmother were allegedly in the house.

The documents allege Clavicular committed rape, drugging a person for sexual intercourse, and procuring and providing liquor to a person under 21.

According to court documents acquired by NPR, Mendoza began communicating with Peters on Instagram, where he paid her to appear on his livestreams to help her “make her name known on social media.”

According to those documents, Peters arranged for the minor to come to Cape Cod home to participate in a videostream for his 437,000 followers on Kick, 1.2 million followers on TikTok, and more than 1 million followers on Instagram.

At his home, Peters allegedly instructed Mendoza to say she was 18 on his videostream and to claim the alcohol on camera was water instead of vodka. Mendoza said she felt peer-pressured to drink the spirit and that she became noticeably intoxicated after a couple of drinks.

The allegations go on to state that after stopping the stream, Peters and Mendoza kissed on a couch and then had sex in his bed without her consent. Mendoza said she did not receive a sexual assault forensic exam after the incident. NPR does not name alleged victims of sexual assault.

The charges come months after Mendoza sued Peters in Miami, accusing him of sexual battery in connection with the events of May 2025. The civil lawsuit also separately alleges that he injected her face with a non-FDA-approved fat-dissolving substance during a November livestream in Florida.

Peters is known for his “looksmaxxing” concept of vanity, which is at the core of his online presence. The “looksmaxxing” culture he has helped cultivate combines elements of incel culture and heterosexuality, with the stated goal of attracting the opposite sex. He has gone as far as to say he has undergone “bonesmashing,” or hitting his own face with a hammer; taken anabolic steroids to more rapidly grow muscle; and used crystal meth as an appetite suppressant.

At the same time, looksmaxxing has been described as having elements of homoeroticism, with “looksmaxxers” appearing more concerned with impressing other men than women. Peters has multiple times pointed to openly gay actor Matt Bomer as the gold standard for male facial aesthetics.

Peters’s arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 14.