Lil Wayne, Ice Cube, 50 Cent see uproar after endorsing Trump policies

WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) — Rappers for Trump? If it sounds far-fetched, it's because, in many ways, it is. Yet, in the weeks leading up the election, President Donald Trump scored a small handful of policy endorsements from influential rappers Lil Wayne, 50 Cent and Ice Cube.

The Trump campaign relished the celebrity attention, writing in a press release that "Black Americans from every sector are speaking out to show their support for President Trump." The Trump campaign has spent more than $20 million during this election cycle to bring Black voters on board with the GOP and to recruit Black Voices for Trump.

It's not clear whether the outreach strategy was effective or whether the friendly attention of a handful of wealthy rappers will push some voters over the edge to back Trump's reelection. In 2016, Trump got just 8% of the Black vote.

Already, the celebrity support for Trump appeared tenuous. Several of the artists retracted their favorable statements about Trump or clarified that they never backed him after their comments sparked unwanted attention from the right and attacks from the left. A similar pattern played out after Kanye West worked with the White House on prison reform and appeared in a MAGA hat for an Oval Office photo op before breaking with Trump.

Before leaving the White House Thursday for a campaign stop in Florida, Trump set aside time to meet with Lil Wayne. After the meeting, Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Carter, tweeted out a photo from the visit and an endorsement of the president's Platinum Plan for investing a half-trillion dollars in Black businesses and communities.

"Just had a great meeting with @realdonaldtrump @potus," Weezy tweeted. "[B]esides what he’s done so far with criminal reform, the platinum plan is going to give the community real ownership. He listened to what we had to say today and assured he will and can get it done." The tweet ended with a call me emoji and prompted a social media uproar.

Lil Wayne's fans and followers claimed he was being used as a political pawn. Articles accused the rapper of being self-interested, motivated by money and unconcerned with the economic or social issues impacting Black communities.

Fellow rapper 50 Cent, tweeted, "Oh no...I WOULD HAVE NEVER TOOK THIS PICTURE." It was sanguine advice from someone who got caught up in Trump's orbit last month after saying he planned to vote for him.

50's support came amid reports that former Vice President Joe Biden's tax plan could result in some high earners paying as much as 62%. "(VOTE ForTRUMP) IM OUT," 50 wrote on social media. "I don’t care Trump doesn’t like black people 62% are you out of ya f***ing mind."

In an Instagram post that has since been deleted, the "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" artist wrote, "Yeah, i don’t want to be 20cent." 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, has reportedly net worth drop by nearly 80% in recent years.

50 later retracted his endorsement saying he "never liked" Trump. The comment came after comedian Chelsea Handler, Jackson's ex-girlfriend, chided him on late-night television saying, "I had to remind him that he was a Black person so he can’t vote for Donald Trump and that he shouldn’t be influencing an entire swath of people who may listen to him because he’s worried about his own personal pocketbook."

Followers of Waka Flocka Flame were also shocked when the rapper appeared to tweet that he believed Trump was a better president than Barack Obama. In response to a clip posted by DJ Akademik of Obama addressing a Philda rally in Philadelphia last week, one Twitter user commented that "people who think Trump is a better President than Obama [are clowns]." Flocka replied with a laughing emoji, "Guess I'm a clown."

The "No Hands" rapper seemed to double-down on his earlier comments, writing on Instagram, "There are two types of people in this world: Those who resist change in favor of nostalgia and those who move with the times and create a better future." Like 50 Cent, Flocka also took shots at Biden's proposed tax hikes on the wealthy. He reportedly has a net worth of $7 million.

Ice Cube has remained unapologetic after being slammed for working with the Trump administration. According to the rapper and actor, the Trump campaign responded to his Black economic empowerment proposal, the Contract With Black America. The Trump campaign reviewed the plan and asked to incorporate elements of it into the Black Economic Empowerment Platinum Plan. Democrats responded to the plan but pushed off the idea of working with the rapper until after the election, according to Ice Cube.

"The Democrats, they got every Black celebrity...on their team. They just figure, tell Cube, 'shut the f*** up and vote,' and so I ain't gonna do that. I'm gonna push the program," he said in a recent video.

The NWA and "Straight Outta Compton" rapper later clarified that he was "not supporting Trump." He also made clear that neither party had delivered for the Black community, which is why he has been shopping his CWBA economic plan to every party and politician that will listen.

The Republicans moved their agenda and put $500 billion on the table in the Platinum Plan, Cube said, though he was skeptical that the plan would materialize.

"Everybody's been mad at me since I haven't been on the...gravy train of these candidates, especially Joe Biden and Harris," Ice Cube said in a video. "No president has done right by us...So putting on our hopes and dreams behind any of them just don't work. We got to make them do what we want them to do."

Saturday Night Live skewered the rappers in the cold open of the show with cast members depicting Lil Wayne and Ice Cube wearing MAGA hats explaining why they were voting for Trump. Both said in unison, "Taxes."

Ice Cube fired back at SNL on social media, writing, "f*** you SNLtrying to reduce me to greed."

The Trump campaign and figures on the right embraced the high-profile celebrity attention, finally netting the support of cultural influencers, as the Democrats have done successfully for years. Conservative activist Candace Owens said the endorsements were part of a "Blexit" or Black voter exit from the Democratic Party to the GOP. Academics and cultural commentators downplayed the significance, claiming the rappers backing Trump had little to no political influence.

"50 Cent and Ice Cube represent neither widespread Black political thought, nor a hidden pocket of pro-Trump activism among Black men," wrote Sam Fulwood III, a presidential studies fellow at American University, in a recent Conversation op-ed.

Rather, the men working with the president and his campaign are "outliers within the larger Black voting community." According to Fulwood, "they are unlikely to sway a considerable number of Black voters away from the Democratic candidate in the November 3 election."

It's also notable that none of the rappers gave an explicit endorsement of President Trump's presidency of reelection bid, offering narrow praise for specific policies, like the Platinum Plan. Barna Donovan, a communications and media culture professor at Saint Peter's University, said the headline-grabbing praise from the rappers was more comparable to "performance art and publicity stunts than serious political activism."

At the same time, he noted that activism on the part of Black celebrities and their willingness to criticize the Democratic Party was important for setting expectations for both parties. "Just like in the case of any other community, politicians should not take the Black community and its voters for granted or assume they will uncritically support any one party," Donovan said.