Rap star Snoop Dogg has expressed strong praise for former President Donald Trump, joining a list of celebrities who have either spoken favorably about or outright endorsed the former president in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.
Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., said in an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Times that he’s still not sure who he'll endorse in the election. But he made clear his view of the former president on a more personal level.
“I have nothing but love and respect for Donald Trump,” Snoop Dogg said.
This positioning is quite a shift from Snoop Dogg's 2017 rap video showing a mock execution of a clown dressed as President Trump.
In a mock breaking news clip, Klump is seen at a “Clown House” press conference where the TV news crawl reads “Ronald Klump wants to deport all doggs."
Later, Snoop Dogg is seen firing a fake pistol at Klump as he stands with his hands raised.
The rapper said President Trump had never done anything wrong to him. On the contrary, “he has done only great things for me.”
The musician specifically praised President Trump’s decision to pardon Michael Harris, one of the co-founders of the Death Row Records label that signed Snoop Dogg early on in his career.
Before leaving office in 2021, President Trump commuted Mr. Harris’ 25-to-life sentence for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder
Mr. Harris, who served a total of 33 years behind bars, told the Daily Mail after he was pardoned that he was grateful to President Trump for the pardon.
“Whyever he did it, he did it, when so many others wouldn’t do it,” he told the outlet, adding, “I’m grateful that God did whatever God do to get mo to sit in this seat. And whatever vessel he used.”
He added that his bid for clemency under former President Barack Obama had failed.
Snoop Dogg’s latest praise for President Trump stands in contrast to earlier criticism, including when he said ahead of the 2020 election that his first-ever vote in a presidential election would be for President Trump’s opponent.
While Snoop Dogg has yet to formally declare his support for President Trump in the 2024 election, a number of celebrities have thrown their weight behind the former president, including comedian Roseanne Barr, actor Dean Cain, and rapper Kodak Black, who once said he would gladly gift the former president $1 million if he needed it.
Besides celebrities, President Trump has racked up 227 noteworthy endorsements from House representatives, senators, and state governors—a figure many times higher than the handful of endorsements given to his sole remaining major GOP presidential rival, Nikki Haley.
President Trump is the frontrunner by far in his bid for the Republican nomination, with 70.3 percent support, compared to 12.6 percent for Ms. Haley, according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling average.
Taylor Swift Biden Endorsement Rumors
Meanwhile, as President Joe Biden’s approval ratings sit at historic lows, his team is reportedly looking to get some enthusiasm going for his campaign by seeking an endorsement from pop superstar Taylor Swift.
It’s unclear whether Ms. Swift, who boasts over 279 million followers on Instagram and has consistently backed Democrats, plans to endorse President Biden.
She endorsed President Biden in the 2020 presidential election and has expressed unfavorable views of President Trump.
The buzz around a possible Swift endorsement for President Biden has become so widespread that, according to The New York Times, the president’s campaign team has urged applicants for an open social media position not to tout the potential endorsement as a silver bullet strategy.
Speculation about Ms. Swift throwing her weight behind President Biden prompted Vivek Ramaswamy, a tech entrepreneur who recently dropped out of the Republican primary race to endorse President Trump, to joke that the NFL may have rigged the Super Bowl to give Ms. Swift a broad platform to announce the potential endorsement.
“I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month. And I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall. Just some wild speculation over here, let’s see how it ages over the next 8 months,” Mr. Ramaswamy said in a post on X.
Ms. Swift, who is dating Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce, has been spotted in recent weeks attending NFL games in support of her boyfriend.
The Chiefs, who are the reigning Super Bowl champions, are set to play the San Francisco 49ers at this season’s final NFL matchup in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Feb. 11.
Celebrity endorsements aside, President Biden’s strategy appears focused on trying to win over independent voters, while seeking to label President Trump and his supporters as “Make America Great Again” extremists and accusing them of being anti-democratic for their calls for vote audits.
President Trump, on the other hand, has sought to portray President Biden as having disastrous energy and border policies that undermine U.S. national security, while pegging the president as frail, incompetent, and dishonest.
