While you probably never thought they’d be in the same sentence together, Jake Paul and Madonna are making headlines today, courtesy of their opposing presidential endorsements.
For his part, the controversial internet personality offered his endorsement of Donald Trump in an 18-minute video shared to his social media channels on Oct. 31. To spare you the horror of having to sit through that, the general gist is that Paul encouraged his 80 million followers to vote for the Republican candidate on the basis that it would “quite literally save America.”
Among other things, the YouTuber vouched for Trump’s stance on issues like “wars, health, guns, border control [and] freedom of speech,” saying that he “can’t just sit back and watch this blasphemy unfold in front of me any longer.” Paul also shamed the “liberal” media for painting Trump as a “bad guy,” and said he’s not concerned about the former president’s “character flaws or what he’s done in the past.”
You’re so right, Jake — who cares what the potential future president has done in the past? Even if he, I dunno, incited an insurrection, he can always head to YouTube and make an abysmal apology video, right?
Bizarrely, Paul even touched on reproductive rights (?), saying the Trump administration has taken no rights away from women and urging his female viewers to not be “single-issue voters.” As if the plight of women wasn’t tiresome enough, now they have to be lectured on their rights by some crypto bro who poses in front of a camcorder for a living.
The cherry on top of this dumpster fire endorsement is the fact that Paul won’t actually be able to vote in this election, since he moved to Puerto Rico last year to fulfill the straight male fantasy of becoming a boxer. As a result, he told followers to “vote on my behalf,” and to his credit, condemned the ‘joke’ Tony Hinchcliffe made at that stomach-churning Trump rally earlier this week.
“Hinchcliffe talking smack about Puerto Rico was not funny,” Paul said, before reiterating that campaign line that the joke does not “reflect Donald Trump’s views.” On the other end of the spectrum — both in terms of the political aisle and in possessing actual talent — Madonna shared her official endorsement of Trump’s opponent in a post shared on Instagram.
The pop star, who was recently labelled a “movie killer” by Patti LuPone, revealed she travelled home from an international trip to vote for the Democratic candidate. “Paris was so FUN!,” the “Vogue” icon wrote. “It was hard to leave, but I had to come home to V.O.T.E. [Harris] for President!!!!”. It marks the most recent show of support from Madonna, who described the vice president as “an intelligent, compassionate [and] well-spoken leader” in a 2020 Instagram post.
Madonna joins a long list of fellow musicians who’ve sung their praises (sorry, I had to) for Harris in the lead up to the election, from Olivia Rodrigo to Beyonce, Ariana Grande, Cardi B, Bad Bunny and Barbra Striesand. For his part, Paul is now a member of a far less starry cohort of celebrity Trump supporters like Kid Rock, Hulk Hogan, Amber Rose and Dennis Quaid. Oh, they’ve also got Dr. Phil, who completes a list that could only be described as my nightmare blunt rotation.