Lil Wayne now joins the class of high-profile rappers who are meeting up with President Donald J Trump just days before the 2020 presidential elections.
The Grammy Award-winning rapper had MAGA supporters singing his praises and others writing him off after announcing that he was throwing his support behind the incumbent president after a recent meeting to discuss the “Platinum Plan.”
As previously reported, the infamous “Platinum Plan” initially made headlines after it was revealed that rapper Ice Cube also met up with the Trump administration to go over the $500 billion initiative that is reportedly supposed to help the Black community. The “Platinum Plan” claims it will create three million new jobs, push for criminal justice reform, improve access to better education and job opportunities, reduce health-care costs, and designate Juneteenth as a national holiday.
It appears that things went well between Wayne and the Trump administration after the rapper tweeted Thursday evening, “Just had a great meeting with @realdonaldtrump @potus besides what he’s done so far with criminal reform, the platinum plan is going to give the community real ownership.” He added, “He listened to what we had to say today and assured he will and can get it done.” The rapper attached a photo of him and Trump smiling as the two men threw a thumbs-up. White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said the meeting between the two took place at the Trump National Doral Miami resort.
To say the 38 year old caused a bit of a commotion on the social media platform would be an understatement. The post garnered over 421,000 likes, 132,000 quoted retweets, and over 136,000 retweets and counting. Trump supporters applauded the rapper, including one person who tweeted, “I love this! Black people are finally waking up!” They continued, “Democrats need 94% of the black vote to win elections & yet they have used & abused blacks for 50years. All they did was teach Black people to be victims so that they could never be or feel empowered to live the American Dream!”
Others blasted the “Misunderstood” rapper, calling him a “f—king idiot” and asking, “how dumb are you.” One critic wrote, “Our brother is lost and confused.”
Another person commented, “Did you ask him why he decided to meet w/ you less than a week before Election Day? When are some of y’all gonna learn? You’re not a high priority if someone takes a meeting with you 5 days prior to an election; but you jumped at the opporcoonity to be used.”
Wayne endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 when she ran against Trump. His decision to endorse Trump doesn’t fall far from the controversial tree from which he plucked previous statements he’d made on racism. In 2016, the “Money on Mind” rapper was met with backlash after he told Skip Bayless on the Fox Sports 1 show “Undisputed” that there was “no such thing as racism” because his concert attendees are a lot of white people. He also said millennials knew that racism wasn’t cool.
Wayne told the Associated Press that one of the reasons behind his viewpoint was that his life was once saved by a white police officer. Wayne revealed that when he was 12 years old, he accidentally shot himself in the chest. “Yeah, he was a cop, and my life was saved by a white man. I don’t know what racism is,” Wayne said.
He said he was lying on the floor when police broke down the door, stepping over his body looking for guns and drugs. However, one man stopped and chastised the others for leaving him. “He was white as snow. Them [expletive] that hopped over me were blacker than me,” the rapper revealed. Wayne added that “Uncle Bob,” the nickname he gave the officer, personally took him to the hospital and stayed with him. “[He] stood there and waited until the doctor said ‘He’s gonna make it.’ ”
Wayne later acknowledged that despite his statement, racism does exist. However, he said when he looks out from the stage, he sees all colors. “It’s the world out there. It’s not a certain part or a certain kind or a certain culture or whatever of people. It’s people. Those people out there in that crowd,” he said. He added, “I’m blessed to have that opportunity — so with that said, I can only be honest with such a thing. I have never witnessed racism.”
