Television personality Amber Rose caused a stir on social media by endorsing Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention on Monday, making her the focus of an on-screen monologue by MSNBC host and commentator Joy Reid.
Her sudden and astonishing about-face on the Republican candidate comes after she slammed Trump in 2016 when she famously said, “He’s just such an idiot. He’s so weird. I really hope he’s not president.”
On Monday night, however, she appeared with a noticeably dark tan, a departure from her Scot-Irish heritage, while she was singing an entirely different tune on Trump.
“I’m no politician and I don’t want to be, but I do care about the truth, and the truth is that the media has lied to us about Donald Trump,” Rose said to wild cheers. “I know this because, for a long time, I believed those lies, so I’m here to set the record straight.”
Republicans widely praised Rose for her reversal, but Trump critics wasted no time pouncing on the contradiction.
Reid pointed out that Rose, mainly known for her romantic relationships with rappers Kayne West and Wiz Khalifa, used Black culture to propel herself to fame and is now jumping on the next viral train.
“I don’t want to say she’s Black because she has said she’s not, so I don’t want to say this Black woman,” said Reid, referring to Rose calling herself biracial in the past.
“This woman who is of whatever race that she has claimed, she’s said she’s not Black, but (the RNC) brought somebody whose whole career is based in Black culture.”
“I don’t know anyone who takes their political cues from Amber Rose, but just in case you do, you might want to duplicate doing your own research because she might not have done it thoroughly,” Reid added.
Rose took to X on Tuesday to clap back at Reid, accusing Reid of using race to instigate an attack.
“I’ve never said I wasn’t black I said I identify as biracial,” Rose wrote directly to Reid. “I’m not going to invalid my white father to make you feel more comfortable. Stop being a race baiter ur president does enough race baiting for all of us.”
Although Rose’s response led to applause from Trump supporters and Reid haters online, it did not stop others from accusing her of abusing Black culture and flip-flopping on her political views.
Rose founded the Los Angeles chapter of the SlutWalk march, an annual feminist protest that focuses on free sexual expression and woman’s rights, which contradicts Republican views on abortion and contraceptives.
Comedian D.L. Hughley also commented on Reid and Rose’s online spat and dismissed Rose’s claims about race-baiting.
“Who’s going to tell her? @joyannreid literally said what you said, that you are racially ambiguous and that she did not want to mislabel you as a Black woman because you previously stated you are not. All that energy for nothing,” Hughley wrote.
Republican Congressman John James of Michigan was among the few Black voices to kick off the convention on Monday. He also sparked a firestorm of controversy after stating, ‘If you don’t vote for Donald Trump, you ain’t Black” — parroting a crude joke made by Joe Biden during his presidential campaign four years ago.
James’ remarks came two days after former President Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt during a campaign speech in Pennsylvania, where a sniper’s bullet grazed the Republican nominee’s right ear.
However, Trump’s near-death experience was quickly overshadowed as social media users turned their wrath to the inflammatory comments by James — which referenced Biden’s tone-deaf remarks during a 2020 interview on Charlamagne Tha God’s radio show, where the Democratic front-runner quipped, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.”
While the mostly white audience at the convention laughed and applauded James’ cheap shot, the joke fell flat on the platform X.
“Rep John James from Michigan is an embarrassment,” magazine editor Francine Bosco posted to X during his speech.
Another X influencer, Todd Adams, compared James’ speech to “a Saturday Night Live skit.”
Author Anthony Tilghman shared a video snippet of the moment when James told the joke and pointed out that it didn’t make sense for the speaker to use the quip because the audience was mostly white.
Mocking James in the accompanying video, Tilghman wrote:
Back in 2020, Biden was forced to apologize after his comments went viral, sparking a tense backlash over a racially sensitive issue as Election Day approached.
Now, with the hotly anticipated rematch just months away, Republicans have been claiming that Trump has gained more support among Black voters, pointing to a Wall Street Journal poll in March, which indicated about 30 percent of Black men in seven battleground states leaning toward Trump in 2024.
More recently, however, Trump’s efforts to gain majority support from Black and Hispanic voters have come up short, according to AP analysis of two AP-NORC polls, which shows 70 percent of Black voters and half of Latino voters have an unfavorable view of Trump, though his favorability has slightly improved since he left office.
About 40 percent of Hispanic voters view Trump positively, up from 30 percent in January 2021, and 70 percent of Black voters view him unfavorably, down from 90 percent in 2021.
Despite this, polls indicate that Trump is still less favored than Biden among Black voters, though he is tied with Biden among Hispanic voters.
Trump’s unpopularity is attributed to his history of racist language, but his populist economic message is resonating with a small but growing number of working-class Black and Latino men, according to polling data from Axios.
Later in his speech, James sought to align himself with Trump as a way to signal broader support for Trump within the Black community, aiming to win favor with one of the nation’s most critical voting blocs.
James drew a parallel between his military service and Trump’s survival, saying, “That’s something else me and President Trump have in common: The bad guys shot at us both, but they missed.”
Later in the evening, in his first public appearance since the assassination attempt, Trump made a raucous entry at the convention with a bandage covering his wounded ear.
Trump appeared emotional after announcing his new running mate, Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio.
Vance is expected to speak on the second-to-last night, and Trump was scheduled to deliver the keynote address on Thursday.
Another Black Republican, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, also mentioned the attempted assassination to rally support for Trump.”The devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle, but the American lion got back up on his feet,” he said.
“The Braveheart of our time, Donald J. Trump,” added Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of North Carolina, also a Black Republican.
