The Trump campaign's secret adviser on the Black vote is ... Ice Cube?
Just days after posting a lengthy video describing his dissatisfaction with both political parties and their failures to help Black communities in the United States, rapper and actor Ice Cube has been revealed by members of the president's inner circle to have been a part of the Trump administration's ongoing outreach toward Black voters.
In a tweet posted late Tuesday afternoon, Trump campaign senior adviser Katrina Pierson publicly lauded Cube "for his willingness to step up" to help create the president's commercial-sounding four-pillar "platinum plan," described by the campaign as "President Trump's promise to Black America" for the coming four years.
"Leaders gonna lead, haters gonna hate. Thank you for leading!" Pierson continued, before sharing a GIF referencing Cube's 1992 hit "It Was a Good Day."
Diante Johnson, the president of the Black Conservative Federation and advisory member of Black Voices for Trump further revealed Wednesday that the disclosure of Cube's participation in the president's agenda was approved by Cube himself, although he did not offer any explanation for why the announcement was being made now.
Cube's association with a president who has spent his time in politics and beyond dabbling in racism, bigotry, and discrimination, is all the more confounding given the rapper's tweet earlier this past summer comparing Trump to a comic book villain.
Cube also criticized Trump in 2016, when he told Bloomberg the following (emphasis mine):
Donald Trump is what Americans love. Donald Trump is what Americans aspire to be — rich, powerful, do what you wanna do, say what you wanna say, be how you wanna be. That’s kind of been like the American dream. He looks like a boss to everybody, and Americans love to have a boss.
Do I think he’s gonna do anything to help poor people or people that’s struggling? No, because he’s a rich white guy.
In a tweet apparently seeking to clarify Pierson's announcement, the rapper wrote that both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party had sought his involvement. While the Democrats wanted to wait to act until after the election, per the rapper, the "Trump campaign made some adjustments to their plan after talking to us."
The Trump campaign's line, however, is decidedly more hawkish on Cube's level of involvement. Either way, it seems that with just weeks to go before the election, the man who once famously rapped "I never have dinner with the president" has changed his tune.
