D.L. Hughley says Donald Trump has run this play enough times that he can see it coming a mile away. And this week, he called it on a man almost everybody in Black America has a soft spot for.
The comedian posted a five-minute critique of the White House that felt like a personal message to one person.
That someone is Shaq, whose newest title from one of Trump’s most controversial appointees already had fans questioning where his loyalty lies.
Hughley wasn’t yelling. He sounded confused, and a little let down, that someone with nothing left to prove had lent his name to the people Hughley believes are using it.
According to the comedian, Shaq is just the latest beloved figure pulled into the same routine, and the part he can’t get past is what the former athlete actually walked away with.
On Thursday, Sept. 17, FBI Director Kash Patel named O’Neal an honorary FBI special agent at the graduation ceremony for Session 299 of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia.
The Hall of Famer stood alongside 265 law enforcement officials, accepted a commemorative badge and plaque, then got a laugh by telling the graduates, “If you see Charles Barkley, arrest him.”
The designation is purely ceremonial and gives O’Neal no investigative power. Badges aren’t new for him, either.
The former NBA star trained as a reserve officer during his Lakers years, according to Complex, and later served in reserve roles in Miami Beach and Doral, Florida. He also picked up an honorary deputy U.S. marshal title back in 2005.
But this one landed differently because of who handed it to Shaq.
When a content creator blasted him over the honor, O’Neal, as seen in screenshots obtained by Baller Alert, went into the comments himself, writing, “U don’t have to like me I don’t like u,” and telling the man to get a real job.
That’s where Hughley stepped in. And he made it clear his problem wasn’t the badge. It was the hand holding it out.
“Whenever something is going on [that] he does not like, he picks a distraction, and oftentimes it is somebody that we love in our community,” Hughley said in the Facebook clip about Trump. “Whether it’s Snoop or Nicki Minaj, and now, case in point, Shaq.”
Then came the question at the heart of the video. “The thing I find the most interesting is that they always get nothing for it,” Hughley said. “I understand what the Trump administration gets. They get viral moments.”
Shaq, he argued, already had badges “all over the country” and decades of goodwill from giving back. “You are a king, and they use that. They mortgage that,” Hughley said. “I just don’t understand what you got from it.”
He laid out what he sees as the administration’s playbook. Start a fight overseas, brand critics un-American, call reporters fake, use popular Black artists to push his narrative, dangle cash promises, anything to pull eyes away from bad news. He argued the fallout has hit Black women especially hard.
Their unemployment rate spiked to 7.7 percent in February, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, before easing to 5.9 percent in August.
Hughley pointed to Minaj’s “fake gold card” as proof. The rapper posted a Trump Gold Card online in January after publicly declaring herself one of the president’s biggest fans.
However, a Commerce Department spokesperson later described the card only as a “memento,” not an actual visa.
It goes without saying that many viewers shared similar views to Hughley’s.
“Wow never looked at it that way. Thanks DL,” one commenter asked.
Another put it in family terms: “Mama use to say, everything looks good to you ain’t good for you!!!”
“Shaq was a willing participant, no one made him do it!” a third wrote. One fan couldn’t resist making a light-hearted joke: “He did get something DL…don’t you make fun of his Paw Patrol badge.”
Not everyone was ready to write Shaq off, though. “Ive stood next to Shaq on a few occasions and he has been solid in his actions to the needy throughout our community,” one man wrote. “The badge is symbolic but his actions are a reality.”
The names on Hughley’s list weren’t pulled out of thin air. Minaj had made her first face-to-face with Trump at a Treasury Department event, where he publicly undercut her before handing over a gift.
Snoop went through his own version of it last year. He fielded “sellout” accusations after he DJed the Crypto Ball during Trump’s inauguration weekend, and he refused to back down.
O’Neal has not publicly responded to Hughley. For now, the comedian’s question is still sitting out there, waiting on an answer only Shaq can give.
