Sexyy Red’s Comments About Trump Aren’t Actually Surprising

Last week, buzzing St. Louis rapper Sexyy Red became the latest entertainer to rankle the public by openly supporting former President Donald Trump. During an appearance on Theo Von’s This Past Weekend web show, she said, “Yeah, they support [Trump] in the hood. At first, I don’t think people was fuckin’ with him. They thought he was racist, saying little shit against women. But once he started getting Black people out of jail and giving people that free money. Aww baby, we love Trump. We need him back in office. We need him back because, baby, them checks. Them stimulus checks. Trump, we miss you.”

The online pushback was widespread from the anti-Trump crowd. It’s easy to simply condemn her for irresponsibly co-signing Trump, who is so despotic that he has four open cases, including RICO charges of overthrowing the 2020 election. But it’s worth parsing through the nuance of why she, and so many other people who come from underserved neighborhoods, feel like her.

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Sexyy Red hails from St. Louis, a city that was calculated as the 10th most segregated American city in 2017. In 2021, their current mayor Tishaura Jones (St. Louis’ first Black woman mayor) reportedly deemed “systemic racism the biggest obstacle to progress” in St. Louis, and pledged to reform their predacious police force and other vessels of the state. Over 40% of St. Louis residents live below the poverty line, which means many of them were figuratively put on their feet by Congress’ Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was signed into law by Trump, that was was devised to fund unemployed people and business owners.

Most of the $525 billion in PPP loan funding was given out to larger businesses, including millions to Trump associates and allies. But there were also almost $200 billion in fraudulent loans doled out to people who flexed their earnings like Pretty Ricky artist Baby Blue, who was sentenced to 20 months for fraudulently receiving $1.4 million in PPP loans and buying a Ferrari. PPP loans became a bonanza, with people creating fake businesses just to get them. Some hoped to flip their loan and pay it back, while others chose to foolishly spend the funds, ignoring the inevitable fraud charge.

For those struggling at the bottom of the hierarchy of needs, the prospect of “free money” made Trump a beloved figure in some communities  — even if his track record also paints him as a bigoted, sexist politician who only moves in his own self-interest. Those traits are sadly par for the course for most national politicians. Billion-dollar loan programs aren’t.

Trump was against the stimulus checks that were dispersed throughout 2020, despite unemployment being rampant due to a viral pandemic. His Republican counterparts fought against them, and the Democrats deserve credit for pushing for it. But still, some people lump the stimulus in with the PPP, and champion Trump as the piggy bank. The “free money” Sexyy Red referred to is actually money that American citizens cycled back to them. But the specifics didn’t reach the public — that reality is how Trump gained his base in the first place.

In August, YG was on Von’s show and told him, “I ain’t gonna lie…the Black community was not fuckin’ with Trump. But when that PPP shit and all that shit came out, Black people forgave him.” While he wasn’t speaking for himself, he noted that people in his neighborhood told him, “Biden ain’t did nothin’ for us, that nigga Trump passin’ out money!”

Most social movements exist on a base of poor people. But they’re often fighting upstream in their neighborhoods to radicalize people generally nonplussed with the possibility of reshaping the American political system in their favor. Meanwhile, both misinformation and spectacle define our modern political climate. Trump’s pardons of Kodak Black and Lil Wayne also won him figurative points in certain communities. Two things can be true: the pardons may have been Trump’s cheap ploys to appeal to Black voters, but they also helped free two hood favorites.

If Biden or Harris had continued the PPP program or issued more pardons to renowned federal prisoners, they’d be celebrated the same way by the same people. But as reductive first impressions go, Biden is mostly known for gaffes like recently calling LL Cool J “LL Jay Cool J, uhhh…” And for months, there was a running joke about whether Kamala was even showing up to do her job. Neither the Biden administration nor the Democrats in general have done enough for poor people to make them feel seen. As Trump has shown, even the mere optic of providing opportunity cultivates power. No one should be completely absolved from amplifying Trump’s corrosive politics or being ignorant of public policy. YG made “FDT” with Nipsey Hussle, and Bronx hero Cardi B regularly espouses leftist politics on Instagram Live.

Liberals can dunk on Sexyy Red or the next rapper who extols Trump as if it’s their good deed for the day, but they should also ask themselves why the Democrats haven’t been able to garner that same devotion. Martin Luther King famously said a riot is the language of the unheard. Perhaps that’s also true of a Trump endorsement from people from Sexyy Red or YG’s neck of the woods.

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