Ice Cube Explains Why He Worked With Donald Trump’s Team, But Draws Pushback In Heat Of 2020 Presidential Race

When a senior adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign thanked Ice Cube for working with the White House on a plan for Black America, it immediately triggered questions of who he was supporting in 2020.

Ice Cube explained shortly afterward on Twitter that he was contacted by both parties about his Contract with Black America, which includes an array of policy proposals, including judicial reform, lending reform and FCC licensing.

“Both parties contacted me,” he wrote. “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.”

Responding to criticism that he was now “working for the darkside,” Ice Cube wrote, “Every side is the Darkside for us here in America. They’re all the same until something changes for us. They all lie and they all cheat but we can’t afford not to negotiate with whoever is in power or our condition in this country will never change. Our justice is bipartisan.”

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The swift reaction to Ice Cube’s work with Trump’s team came after Katrina Pierson, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, thanked Ice Cube on Twitter. “Shoutout to @icecube for his willingness to step up and work with @realDonaldTrump Administration to help develop the #PlatinumPlan  Leaders gonna lead, haters gonna hate. Thank you for leading!” Among other things, the Platinum Plan calls for increasing access to capital. 

In the heat of one of the most polarized presidential election campaigns, though, Ice Cube’s work with Trump triggered suspicions that it was a way for the president to try to draw from Joe Biden’s support among African Americans.

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Toure, the author and podcast host, wrote on Twitter, “Trump’s proven that he’s our enemy. Never think he’ll be there for us. How can Cube not see that he’s being used?” Roland Martin wrote, “The Trump Platinum Plan is the Aluminum Foil Plan. I have read @icecube’s Contract With Black America and there is NOTHING in Trump’s plan that is similar. NOTHING.”

Ice Cube in August, 2016 made it clear that he would not endorse Trump that year. “I will never endorse a mothaf—- like Donald Trump! EVER!!!” he wrote.

Jeff Kwatinetz, Ice Cube’s business partner, said in an email that the entertainer “has not endorsed Trump. He wants the country to address 450 years of Black oppression and will talk to anyone who is in a position to help.” Kwatinetz’s former business associate at The Firm was Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist for the president. But Kwatinetz said that it was “certainly insulting” to even ask if Bannon was somehow involved in coordinating Ice Cube’s work with Trump.

In a video posted several days ago, Ice Cube said, “No president has done right by us. I don’t trust none of them. So putting our hopes and dreams behind any of them just don’t work. We got to make them do what we want to do, and there is only a few ways to do that.”

He said that Republicans “moved the agenda a lot because of what we said. They put $500 billion on the table, but who knows? Who knows what is going to really happen?”