Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson have copped major criticism online after appealing to their followers to donate to their fundraiser for those affected by the Maui fires.
Oprah Winfrey had already made a sizable donation to the Maui Wilderness Fundraiser that she and Dwayne Johnson had established. The reality star has subsequently been charged with employing a private security team for her Hawaii mansion and has referred to her fund-raiser as a “sham.”
A wildfire blazed through thousands of acres of land on the Hawaii island last month, reportedly killing 115 people.
A widely shared TikTok video on X (formerly Twitter) claims that Winfrey hired the team before the fires even started with the person saying: “Instead of taking some of that land and housing even a small portion of those displaced people, you hired a private security team to keep them off your land.”
The user also went on to add: “You are so concerned about Maui, that you are asking the American public, most of whom can’t pay their rent right now to donate the money to your fund-raiser, instead of actively donating that money and helping.”
The netizen further went on to add that, Winfrey was doing it all to score ‘social media points’, when she and a couple of her billionaire friends were capable of sending out money which could solve the problem, in a matter of months.
Since then, the whole news has gone viral on social media, with man netizens slamming the star for her actions.
One person shared in a clip that she wanted the former talk show host to “go outside and touch grass.
“You’re one of the richest women in the world and you’ve got the nerve to ask us for some money?” she said in her rant.
Another netizen did a fact check and found out that so far, her fund-raiser where she and Johnson had collectively donated $10 million (Dh36.7 million), had in fact never reached the people and as of now only had gotten $4,000 (Dh14,692.22), showing that “people are actually waking up”.
Others have left savage comments on Winfrey and Johnson’s social media videos, with many admitting that, as a result of the cost of living crisis, there is no extra cash in their pockets.
“We just went broke buying eggs a couple months ago. Like are you serious [right now]” one person wrote.
“I can’t even afford to fund myself,” another protested.
