The Republican National Convention kicked off Monday night in Milwaukee with an official running-mate nomination and an appearance by Donald Trump and his gauze-wrapped ear. Also on the docket: a speech by former SlutWalk host and recent Trump convert Amber Rose. Rose, who once called Trump a “fucking idiot” and said during his 2016 run, “I really hope he’s not president,” appeared to perform a 180 on her stance this past May when she posted a photo with the former president and his wife, Melania, captioned “Trump 2024.” Rose confirmed as much in her speech Monday night, when she vowed that “no matter your political background … the best chance we have to give our babies a better life is to elect Donald Trump president of the United States.”
Rose, whose long-time advocacy for women’s rights has been called into question since she started stumping for an infamous misogynist and accused rapist, went on to tell the RNC audience that “the media has lied to us about Donald Trump.” “For a long time, I believed those lies,” she said. “I believed the left-wing propaganda that Donald Trump was a racist.” I guess she’s not bothered by Trump’s documented history of using racially coded language about Black and brown people or his open embrace of his white-supremacist supporters.
Rose, though, claimed in her speech that she “did my research” about Trump and “realized Donald Trump and his supporters don’t care if you’re Black, white, gay, or straight; it’s all love.” Her fellow speech-makers’ emphasis on anti-LGBTQ legislation did not, in fact, suggest that it is “all love,” but Rose proudly shared during her speech that she has finally “let go of my fear of judgment, of being misunderstood, of getting attacked by the left, and put the red hat on too.” At least one of us is pleased with this turn of events.