‘Pawn Stars’ Rick Harrison Invited To Trump Inauguration Celebration

Pawn Stars patriarch, Rick Harrison has just been invited to President-elect Trump’s inauguration in Washington D.C. in January in return for stumping for the Republican candidate. Why did Harrison stump for Trump and will Chumlee run the pawn shop when Rick is gone partying with Washington insiders?

For more than a year, Rick Harrison has been hitting the campaign trail. First, the History Channel reality star started out a Marco Rubio fan and stumped for the Republican Florida Senator, shot a commercial endorsing the candidate in the very pawn shop that Pawn Stars is filmed, and publicly supported Rubio until he dropped out of the race.

It appears that when push comes to shove, Harrison placed all of his bets on the guy that beat Rubio and all of the other Republican hopefuls. Harrison good-naturedly admits while he does not agree with all of Trump’s ideas, he obviously found he had enough common ground with the Republican to publicly stump for him. And of course, Harrison found an obscure quote to say it!

“It’s like what Ed Koch said when he was mayor of New York. ‘If you agree with me on nine out of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, have your head examined.'”

This was a gamble that ultimately rewarded Chumlee’s boss. Yet, the reality star knew that his own business could further be hurt by stumping for a Republican. Just 14 months ago, Harrison had told CNN that his public support of Rubio made him lose business.

“There have been some endorsements that didn’t happen.”

Harrison elaborated further on how stumping for a Republican is frowned upon in the public eye.

“I suddenly became famous and I was the one willing to throw my career away to endorse a Republican. When you endorse a Republican, everyone sort of frowns on you. I don’t know why, but hey.”

The owner of the World Famous Gold and Silver Pawn Shop admitted that he was concerned on how publicly stumping for a Republican candidate could hurt his own bottom line.

“It does worry me to a degree.”

His surprise and anguish both appear genuine. Perhaps he can get some slack because he was not aware of the consequences of stumping for Rubio or Trump as he is technically not even a Republican in the first place. Harrison, who calls himself a Libertarian, spoke on Pawn Stars of his own political beliefs.

“I’m a total libertarian. I truly believe that if government just stepped out of the way, we’d have a trade surplus, we’d be energy independent, we would have full employment, and there’d be so much money out there that there would be charitable hospitals all over this country.”

A year ago, if Rick Harrison ever imagined that he would be attending the Presidential inauguration, odds are he would never have guessed he would have been invited by Donald Trump.

Last year, when he spoke to CNN, he told Chris Moody that he could not relate to the billionaire, thus he could not vote for him. The Pawn Stars patriarch admitted he never met Trump, although he was sure that The Donald was a “nice guy.” What he questioned was Trump’s ability to understand what regular people were going through in life as money was never a problem in Trump’s privileged life. Harrison even surmised that Trump was never told by his folks that “we can’t afford that” like so many other Americans who are struggling to make ends meet.

“I’ve never met him, I’m sure he’s a nice guy. I don’t think he’s going to relate to me or anybody else in here because when he grew up and asked his parents, ‘Can we get that?’ He never once in his life heard from his parents, ‘We can’t afford that, son.'”

What a difference a year makes. First, he makes a political ad with Don Trump Jr. and now the star of Pawn Stars is heading to Washington D.C in January for the Trump inauguration, leaving Chumlee at the shop to star in the show. Who knows, maybe Chumlee will take over the show altogether and Rick Harrison will be moving up and onwards and continue to work for Trump in other capacities?

What do you think of Rick Harrison of Pawn Stars going to the Trump inauguration? Does Harrison’s endorsement of Trump change your opinion of Pawn Stars or will it change your viewing habits?

[Featured Image by David Becker/Getty Images]