Waka Flocka performs onstage at The Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre on September 1, 2023, in Detroit, Michigan. | Source: Aaron J. Thornton / Getty
While the truth is proverbially supposed to set you free, the opposite has seemingly happened for the latest rapper to express support for Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy.
Waka Flocka Flame on Monday afternoon became the most recent member of the hip-hop community to publicly endorse Trump in what is seemingly a continued trend from the 2020 election.
Without any explanation, Waka Flocka Flame took to the social media app formerly known as Twitter to let his feeling be known with a brief post that simply said “TRUMP2024.”
The post was liked more than 40,000 times.
Trump’s campaign quickly embraced the endorsement and posted a graphic to social media showing the candidate and the rapper standing next to each other with a message proudly reading: “ENDORSED BY WAKA FLOCKA FLAME.”
While other rappers have also made no secret of their apparent affection for Trump, Waka Flocka Flame’s social media post stood in stark contrast to one from 2015 when Trump was first running for president. In that instance, as one social media user reminded, Waka Flocka Flame tweeted quite the different sentiment: “F*ck Donald J. Trump.”
It was not immediately clear why Waka Flocka Flame had the political change of heart, but his stated support for Trump’s 2024 run came one week after fellow rapper Sexyy Red said during an interview that she was also firmly behind the four-times criminally indicted former president.
In that instance, Sexyy Red explained the motivation behind her endorsement of Trump.
After saying Trump had support “in the ‘hood,” Sexyy Red said he was revered in part because of the “free money” from pandemic stimulus checks and presidential prison sentence commutations and pardons.
“We need him back, ‘cause them checks? Oooh, yeah, them stimulus checks,” Sexyy Red said. “Trump, we miss you.”
https://twitter.com/SSZEXXYY/status/1709260800718696821?s=20
Sexyy Red and Waka Flocka Flame are simply the latest rappers to offer kind words for Trump. The rapper formerly known as Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Ice Cube notwithstanding, a growing number of rappers have responded to Trump’s criminal indictments with a “wave of endorsements,” as the New York Post put it.
Rapper Kodak Black, whose prison sentence was commuted by Trump in 2020, recently was shown in a video claiming America needs Trump “in office forever.”
In April, rapper Swae Lee of the award-winning hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd praised Trump for pardoning rappers and said the former president is “tapped in” for freeing rapper Kodak Black and pardoning Lil Wayne.
He said he’d “definitely go with Trump over Biden for sure” in the 2024 election if the two square off again.
The stated support for Trump comes about a month after the former president claimed without proof that polling showed his support among Black people has quadrupled or even quintupled since his mugshot was made public following a series of arrests this year.
However, data released weeks later by the Pew Research Center showed that Trump’s support among Black people had risen substantially since the 2020 election and stood at around 20%.
SEE ALSO:
Judge Tanya Chutkan ‘Could Lock Trump Up’ If He Violates Gag Order, Law Professor Warns
