Some on the right are not happy with Trump’s choice to platform media personality Amber Rose at the RNC—with several taking to Twitter/X to slam her selection in light of her sex-positive messaging over the years. One such right-winger, Matt Walsh called Rose a “pro-abortion feminist and self-proclaimed slut with a face tattoo whose only claim to fame is having sex with rappers.”
Rose became a public figure following her two-year romantic relationship with Kanye West that began in 2008 and subsequent marriage and divorce from rapper Wiz Khalifa. She’s since maintained her spotlight with sex-positive activism, like being the face of the SlutWalk, a movement against gender-based violence that seeks to reclaim the word “slut” for women.
She’s also appeared on reality television and is a prominent OnlyFans creator—notably, not a porn star—a fact that was lost on more than a few social media users who took to X to criticize her RNC appearance.
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While some felt choosing Rose to represent the Republican party was “truly an embarrassment,” as Walsh put it, the unusual choice drew praise from those you may not have expected, like liberal CNN pundit Van Jones, who said Rose’s remarks were “the most dangerous” for Democrats heading into the election.
“That is a young woman of color,” Jones said after her speech, “She is describing the experience that a lot of people have—feeling that maybe, if you’re around too many liberals, you might get criticized too much or you might not be able to speak your mind, and she spoke to it really well.”
MSNBC host Joy Reid had a very different take, expressing her skepticism that Rose’s symbolism as a young person of color who supports Trump will actually have any impact, as Rose has declined to call herself Black in the past despite her rise to fame by dating Black rappers and appearing on Black platforms like BET. (Rose later clarified that she felt it was “unfair to Black women and their experiences” to say she is just a Black woman, as she is of mixed descent and has a paler skin tone.)
“To say that this is the person who is the endorser of Donald Trump who you should trust—when she won’t even claim the culture that brought her to the table, I’m dubious that this will work,” Reid concluded.
Though several RNC viewers took to X to praise the speech along with Jones, the loudest sentiment is disappointment that Rose was the best they could find to “de-stigmatize Black people supporting Trump—a goal for the campaign since the start of this cycle,” as Axios reporter Sophia Cai put it.
It sounds like they may have to get used to Rose sticking around though, because as she said in her speech, “These are my people. This is where I belong.”
