The precarious relationship between Ice Cube and Donald Trump
West Coast rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube has said some incendiary things in the past and isn’t a stranger to feuds with people in high places. However, when Donald Trump assumed the presidency in 2016, it began a calamitous connection that became very intense.
As a member of NWA, Ice Cube spoke truth to power with songs like ‘F*ck Tha Police’ and ‘Express Yourself’. However, this was something he continued when he pursued his solo career with tracks such as ‘Black Korea’ and ‘It Was a Good Day’.
With his 1991 diss track ‘No Vaseline’, the Crenshaw native aimed at gay men, NWA’s Jewish former manager Jerry Heller, and major labels. However, as he matured, the previously fiery character became calmer. Still, when Donald Trump stepped into the political arena, Ice Cube had to weigh in.
Until recently, Ice Cube was a vocal critic of Donald Trump. Before and shortly after the businessman was elected to office, Ice Cube was highly opposed to him. In 2016, during the Presidential campaign, the lyricist tweeted, “I will never endorse a mothaf*cka like Donald Trump! EVER!!!”
Two years into Trump’s first term, Ice Cube released a song called ‘Arrest the President’ on which he raps, “Arrest the president, you got the evidence / That n*gga is Russian intelligence … Did you know the new white was orange?” It’s safe to say that Cube was not a fan of Trump’s.
During the summer of 2020, after the death of George Floyd and the riots that followed, Ice Cube put out a document explaining how the government could help black Americans called the “Contract with Black America.” As it was an election year, both Donald Trump and Joe Biden contacted the emcee to show interest in the plan and strangely, Ice Cube felt that the former was more determined to enact the policies he was suggesting.
Taking to social media, Ice Cube told his fans, “Facts: 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.”
Parts of Ice Cube’s “Contract with Black America” became part of Trump’s “Platinum Plan” for Black Americans, which promised to “increase access to capital” in Black communities, declare Juneteenth a national holiday, and prosecute the KKK as a terrorist organization.
However, Cube received backlash for even interacting with Trump, with the author Roxane Gay asking, “How … does the guy from N.W.A. become MAGA?” Still, the Death Certificate creator didn’t care and explained his reasoning.
Taking to Instagram, Cube told his followers, “Straight up, I believe the Democrats, they’ve been nice, they’ve been cordial so to speak, I don’t really see them pushing their policies in any particular direction.”
He continued, “It’s still ‘minority, minority, minority, people of colour’ sh*t that don’t necessarily include us, that don’t necessarily include Black Americans!” People still reprimanded the lyricist but he asserted that the US voting system doesn’t serve Black Americans regardless of party.