Amid Leftist Backlash, This Rapper Won’t Apologize for Working With Trump

The backlash has been intense. Articles have been written calling rapper Ice Cube everything up to and including an Uncle Tom. Thought pieces have been penned calling the rapper out for his rejection of black woman, who are supposedly united (to the last woman, one assumes) in opposition to Donald Trump. Late-night comedians have mocked him. Black Twitter has rejected him. But through it all, the rapper who co-founded NWA refuses to back down. He will not apologize for working with the president that so many of his fans despise.

In an interview with Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo this weekend, Ice Cube said that after George Floyd’s death, he took his “Contract with Black America” plan to both Trump and the Biden campaign. He was interested. Which one of these candidates would take his proposals seriously? To him, the importance of doing something positive for black Americans was more important than sticking with “his” party or choosing political sides. He wanted action.

In doing so, he found himself taken by President Trump’s Platinum Plan, a set of proposals that wasn’t just about police and wasn’t just about criminal justice but about all aspects of American life affecting black people.

“I like that it’s aimed towards black Americans, you know, that’s the key. I just think whatever we do got to be aimed towards black Americans,” he told Bartiromo.

Though Ice Cube made it clear that he’s not joining forces with black conservatives like Candace Owens, he said that he wasn’t impressed with ardent liberals who insist on bashing him for working with the Trump administration.

“At the end of the day, they’re mad ‘cause I’m just willing to work with anybody that’s willing to work with me to see some of these things that’s in the Contract with Black America come to pass,” he said. “I’ve been getting pushback ever since I came out with the Contract with Black America, you know, from everybody who really don’t want us to have real demands, but people who just want us to basically shut up and vote, and I’m not gonna do that.

“I’m a citizen of this country just like everybody else, and I can say what I want to say,” he continued. “I’m not aligned with anybody’s personal views. I only care about what they do in public as far as helping the public and, you know, empty rhetoric, empty talk, everybody’s popping off, at the end of the day, we need to get what we need in this country to survive. If we don’t get that, this country won’t survive. And that’s what I’m saying.”

Honestly, if there were more people in this country willing to work with anyone to get results rather than play the team sport of politics, we’d be in a much better place.