US President Donald Trump, in the early hours of Sunday, took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to advocate for the “prosecution” of Democrats who “illegally” paid millions to eminent personalities. He claimed that the Democrats owed his administration a large amount of money due to their “endorsement” campaign ahead of the presidential elections. He slammed singer Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, and former Vice President Kamala Harris, adding that “all hell would break out” if paid political endorsements were made legal.
In his social media post, the US president wrote, “I’m looking at the large amount of money owed by the Democrats, after the Presidential Election, and the fact that they admit to paying, probably illegally…” He claimed that Beyoncé was paid $11 million for an “endorsement”, along with $3 million to Oprah for “expenses”. He added that “low-rated TV anchor” Al Sharpton accepted $600,000 for political endorsements.
For Beyoncé, he remarked, “She never sang, not one note, and left the stage to a booing and angry audience!” Although Trump claimed that those named had accepted money for the campaign, neither they nor the Democrats have commented on the allegation.
“Can you imagine what would happen if politicians started paying for people to endorse them? All hell would break out! Kamala and all of those who received Endorsement money broke the law. They should all be prosecuted,” wrote Trump in his post on Truth Social.
Following this, in yet another post, Trump also threatened media houses like NBC and ABC, and said that they were “political pawns for the Democrat Party”. He added, “In my opinion, their licenses could, and should, be revoked! MAGA.”
Trump’s feud with “endorsements”
However, this is not the first time Trump has targeted Beyoncé and other big names for “illegal campaign donations”. He also slammed singer Bruce Springsteen and Bono earlier this year in May. Trump called for a “major investigation” into Bono’s support for Harris. The Trump-Springsteen battle ended up being big news for Hollywood when Bono, on a talk show, said, “there is only one Boss in America,” referring to Springsteen after his opposition to the Trump administration.
Earlier, Oprah had denied all claims of such payments. She said she was “not paid a dime” to appear alongside Harris during her campaign. It was estimated to be a $1 million live-stream event. “The people who worked on that production needed to be paid. And were. End of story,” Oprah said at the time.