James Charles is facing fresh backlashon TikTok after calling a laid-off Spirit Airlines worker a 'lazy piece of s***' in a video posted on 8 May, then briefly doubling down before issuing a public apology later that day.
The 26-year-old beauty influencer had been responding to a direct message from a woman who said she had lost her job whenSpirit Airlines shut downand asked him to donate to her GoFundMe. Rather than ignoring the request or replying privately, Charles filmed himself addressing it to his millions of followers, accusing the woman of entitlement and insisting that people lose their jobs 'every f***ing day.'
In the now-deleted clip, he branded the former Spirit Airlines worker a 'lazy piece of s***' and told her, 'Welcome to the real world.' It was a familiar performance from an influencer used to speaking unfiltered to the camera, but this time the target was not a brand or a fellow creator. It was one recently unemployed woman, and the power imbalance was impossible to miss.
The news came after audiences seized on what they saw as a rich and powerful figure publicly humiliating someone who had just lost her income. The video ricocheted across TikTok and X, clipped and reposted by viewers who seemed less shocked by the swearing than by the contempt.
James Charles is going viral after going on a rant and mocking a woman who lost her job due to the Spirit Airlines bankruptcy after she sent him her GoFundMe link.pic.twitter.com/BgqNAXtuaM
'Tone-deaf moments travel fast because audiences are no longer reacting just to what was said — they're reacting to the power imbalance underneath it,' crisis and reputation strategist Robbie Vorhaus told reporters. 'In this case, people didn't see an influencer criticising a stranger. They saw a wealthy public figure publicly mocking someone who had just lost their livelihood.'
Within hours, James Charles deleted the original TikTok. He did not, however, retreat. In a second video, he conceded that his phrasing might have been 'harsh' but insisted he still stood '10 toes down' on the core message. He argued that some people lacked what he called a 'make-it-work mentality,' framing the Spirit Airlines worker's crowdfunding plea as a symptom of a wider refusal to hustle.
That follow-up video also disappeared. By then, though, the narrative had shifted from a single rant to a mini-spiral of posts, deletions and anger. Commenters began stitching his clips with stories of their own layoffs and low-wage jobs, pointing out the gulf between Charles's advice and the reality of surviving unemployment and rising costs.
Later that same day, James Charles tried to put out the fire with a third TikTok, this time explicitly framed as an apology. Gone were the 'make-it-work' mindsets. Instead, he described his earlier comments as 'rude,' 'obnoxious,' 'privileged' and 'completely f***ing unnecessary.'
World's biggest cry baby, James Charles, has issued an apology for mocking the Spirit Employee who DM'd him asking for financial help.pic.twitter.com/htAs4WhkUH
Source: International Business Times UK
