Trump's sneaker website hijacked by school shooting survivor

Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg has bought a website domain referencing Donald Trump's new sneaker brand, and turned into an anti-gun violence website.

Hogg, who is now the president of Leaders We Deserve, an organisation that helps elect young candidates to Congress, shared his purchase on Twitter/X on Friday.

"I just bought shoptrumpsneakers.com," he wrote. "I have redirected you to a page to call your member of congress. The twist is the person who makes the call is a victim of gun violence, whose voice has been re-created with AI to call for gun safety."

The domain is similar enough to former President Trump's new sneaker site "gettrumpsneakers.com", which sells sneakers ranging from $199 to $399 to help him raise funds for his upcoming legal trials.

The most costly shoes - "The Never Surrender High-Tops" have sold out, with some buyers attempting to resell them for thousands of dollars, on Trump's app Truth Social.

The former president started promoting the shoes at Sneaker Con, a footwear convention in Philadelphia. It came days after he was ordered to pay $350 million for conspiring to manipulate his net worth.

Hogg's website reads, "voices lost to gun violence make the call for change."

"Gun silence, thousands of innocent lives every year. Using AI technology, we re-created the voices of those shot and killed by guns so they can call our representatives in hopes of changing our country's gun law."

Since the website's launch, it has been used to send 58,362 calls. With website visitors able to choose from six different generated voices of gun violence victims. Visitors can then enter their zip codes and select a recording of their choice to send to a politician.

In February 2018, 17 people were killed and 17 others were injured after a former student opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Hogg, along with other students, went on to become an anti-gun violence activist and a co-founder of student-led organisation March for Our lives, that advocates for gun control legislation.

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