After Pushback, Ice Cube Clarifies His Role With Trump

Ice Cube, a rapper who released a 2018 song called "Arrest the President," which includes the lyrics, "you got the evidence … [he's] Russian intelligence," is now taking heat for working with none other than the Trump campaign. In a Tuesday tweet, campaign adviser Katrina Pierson gave a "shoutout" to the rapper "for his willingness to step up and work with" the Trump administration on developing the Platinum Plan to benefit Black Americans. It was "a bewildering revelation," according to the Washington Post, which notes Ice Cube vowed to "never endorse" Trump in 2016. On Wednesday, the rapper confirmed some ideas from his Contract with Black America—a series of proposed reforms he said politicians needed to agree to in order to "get the support of the Black vote"—had been included in the Platinum Plan. But he denied supporting Trump.

"I put out the CWBA. Both parties contacted me. Dems said we'll address the CWBA after the election. Trump campaign made some adjustments to their plan after talking to us about the CWBA," the rapper tweeted. He added, "We can't afford not to negotiate with whoever is in power" as "every side is the Darkside for us here in America. … They all lie and they all cheat." The explanation did not sit well with many. Political commentator Bakari Sellers claimed Ice Cube "fell for something shiny," per Fox News. The writer Touré said "Trump's proven that he's our enemy … How can Cube not see that he's being used?" Others wondered why Ice Cube was claiming to represent all Black Americans. But the journalist Roland Martin suggested the Trump campaign was inflating Ice Cube's role. "There is NOTHING in Trump's plan that is similar [to CWBA]," he wrote. (More Ice Cube stories.)