When one Twitter user said “abolish the upper class,” we felt that.
This was one of the impassioned sentiments thrown towards Kylie Jenner after the founder of Kylie Cosmetics rallied her followers to a GoFundMe campaign meant to pay for her friend and makeup artist Samuel Rauda’s hospital bills.
Rauda, who has worked with top celebrities like Bella Thorne, Chrissy Teigen, and frequently, Jenner herself, figured in a horrific car accident that required him to undergo “major surgery” on March 14. Rauda’s friend, YouTuber and reality star La Demi, described the “awful accident” on her Instagram, writing that the 26-year-old makeup artist “flew off of a moving vehicle crushing his head into the pavement.”
The tragedy prompted Rauda’s family and close contacts to launch a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for his hospital bills.
After catching wind of the incident, 23-year-old Jenner penned an optimistic post on her Instagram Stories on March 15. There, she asked fans to “say a prayer” for Rauda and to consider donating to the latter’s fundraising initiative.
Swiping up on her post leads to the GoFundMe page, where fans saw Jenner’s contribution amounting to $5,000, similar to Thorne’s.
The amount, which seemed trivial to most given Jenner’s astronomical net worth, was enough to cause a stir on social media.
Negative reactions to Jenner’s deficient donation were swift and severe, most of which flooded Twitter the following day. One Twitter user asserted that Jenner’s entire family and friends, which includes several millionaires, could have paid for the bills without having to “ask the middle class for money.”
Another user raised a call to “abolish the upper class,” citing how Jenner, whose net worth is pegged at around $900 million by Forbes, passing the buck in this situation is downright despicable.
No way billionaire kylie jenner opened a Go Fund Me for her stylist??? ?? sis how about you GO FUND HIM
— TOKS? (@Whxtevxrr) March 21, 2021
Kylie Jenner, who makes $19K/hr asking for $$$ from her fans to help her make up artist pay for a $60,000 surgery, is an excellent example of why we need universal healthcare. Even billionaire employers like Kylie and Walmart aren’t willing to pay for their employees' healthcare.
— Moumita Ahmed (@disruptionary) March 21, 2021
It’s not even about the fact that she won’t pay for the surgery herself. Every single last one of Kylie Jenner’s sisters is a millionaire. Her parents are millionaires. Her friends are millionaires. But she asked the MIDDLE CLASS for money. This family…… pic.twitter.com/zFqeeBvuY3
— Mimi (@Princess_Mia_95) March 21, 2021
So Kylie Jenner who apparently earns over $450k A DAY and is a billionaire shared the 60k gofundme of her friend who got in an accident for us poor people to donate to? Celebrities are a different breed.
— ? (@livelaughcryxo) March 20, 2021
Kylie Jenner really asked us for money like we made the Forbes list pic.twitter.com/XsvLUn8i6X
— raveen marie ?? (@xoraveen) March 21, 2021
Folks are defending Kylie Jenner by pointing out she donated $5,000 to her makeup artist's medical GoFundMe. Her net worth is $900M.
— Charlotte Clymer ??????? (@cmclymer) March 21, 2021
So, that's 0.000006% of her net worth.
If your net worth were, say, $100k, it would be like donating 56 cents.
kylie jenner:
— Nicole Perez (@nicole_perez1) March 22, 2021
$60k for a $60k for a
friends life designer bag pic.twitter.com/jibLYhTXwZ
Responding to criticisms over her paltry donation, Jenner once again took to Instagram to “clear up this false narrative.”
Through a series of Instagram Stories, the makeup mogul clarified that she doesn’t share a personal relationship with Rauda anymore and that her initial bequest of $5,000 was meant to put the campaign over its original target of just $10,000. Since it was published, the fundraiser has repeatedly met its target, causing it to swell to its current aim of $120,000.
Critics, however, remain unfazed by the clarification, with one Twitter user saying that if Jenner doesn’t recognize a personal relationship with Rauda anymore, then that makes the fans whom she asked to donate even bigger strangers to the afflicted.
Jenner, the youngest member of the mega-wealthy Kardashian clan, was formerly touted as the world’s youngest “self-made “ billionaire by Forbes in 2019. Credit goes to her Kylie Cosmetics, whose majority of shares were sold to beauty giant Coty for $1.2 billion, as well as the string of appearances she made across various media. However, Forbes would strip Jenner of the title two months later, after an investigation revealed that Jenner exaggerated the size and profitability of her company. Forbes subsequently posted her net worth to an adjusted $900 million in 2020.
Still, $900 million is a bit bigger than $5,000. If she can buy her daughter Stormi a $15,000 Hermes bag, she can cover the full medical bill and then some.