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Has Kim Kardashian gone MAGA?
That question swirled around the internet this week after Ms. Kardashian, the reality show personality and pre-eminent social media influencer, posted a series of photographs of herself on Instagram and X posing in front of and inside a Tesla Cybercab.
She wore black heels and lace stockings over her signature nude-colored shapewear, with a garter belt and a puffy black jacket. An Optimus robot — that reportedly will be capable of doing practically anything, whether it’s operating a Cybertruck or frying an egg — sat in the driver’s seat.
There were pictures of Ms. Kardashian standing outside the vehicle. There were pictures of her sitting on the bot’s lap. A representative for Ms. Kardashian, who has concealed some sponsored content in the past, said no payments were received in exchange for the posts.
The timing was definitely curious. Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, has gained new prominence as one of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s most notable backers, and he has even been asked by Mr. Trump to join Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new “department of government efficiency.”
That connection was enough for people to start speculating about her motivations, and some went as far as connecting those posts with Ms. Kardashian’s apparent friendliness with Ivanka Trump, Mr. Trump’s daughter, to bolster the case that she had embraced Mr. Trump politically.
That speculation began in 2023, when Ms. Kardashian held a birthday celebration at Funke, an Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills, Calif. Many people were surprised that a photograph Ms. Kardashian posted on Instagram from that party featured her with a group that included Lauren Sánchez, the partner of Jeff Bezos, and Ms. Trump.
Ms. Trump, who was once a sought-after guest at social events, fell out of those circles, particularly among liberals, after her father’s time in the White House. That exclusion has carried on, even though she has remained mostly out of the public eye since her father’s first presidency, and she did not campaign for him in his effort for re-election.
A show of support from Ms. Kardashian — whose popularity can be attributed, at least in part, to her ability to keep the American public fixated on her while being utterly anodyne politically — was, at the very least, surprising.
Image
So why would Ms. Kardashian use her influential social media platform to amplify Tesla and Ms. Trump when they tend to be lightning rods among coastal liberals?
One clue might be her dedication to overhaul of the criminal justice system. The Trump family has aided her on that front in the past and will soon be back in power politically.
In 2018, Ms. Kardashian, whose father was a prominent attorney and businessman, became involved in an effort to help free Alice Marie Johnson, who was sentenced to life in prison for her involvement in a 1996 cocaine smuggling operation.
To get Ms. Johnson’s sentence commuted, Ms. Kardashian called Ms. Trump, who was then working at the White House as a director of the Office of Economic Initiatives and Entrepreneurship. They were assisted by Ms. Trump’s husband, Jared Kushner, who was working at the time as a senior adviser to Mr. Trump.
That May, Ms. Kardashian met with Mr. Trump at the White House, where she told him Ms. Johnson’s story.
In the forward to Ms. Johnson’s memoir, “After Life: My Journey from Incarceration to Freedom,” Ms. Kardashian wrote that a week after her White House meeting, she received a phone call from Mr. Trump informing her of his decision to grant clemency to Ms. Johnson.
In 2020, Ms. Johnson appeared in an ad that the Trump campaign aired during the Super Bowl. In it, she described leaving prison as the “greatest day” of her life and thanked him personally for giving her the freedom to “start over.”
Mr. Trump also granted clemency to a number of other prisoners whose releases Ms. Kardashian campaigned for. Despite the cooperation, Ms. Kardashian did not support Mr. Trump when he ran for re-election in 2020. In an interview with The New York Times that March, Ms. Kardashian said she would not be endorsing anyone in the race.
Mr. Trump did not like this. He was also not thrilled that Ms. Kardashian had responded to one of President Biden’s posts on social media with a series of heart emojis.
“I was disappointed in Kim,” he later said in an interview. “With Kim, I did a lot of prison reform that she couldn’t get done with anybody else.”
“I let people out of prison that I thought were deserving to be let out,” he added. “And then after it was all over, she announced that she’s not supporting me. And she only did that to be cool in Hollywood.”
Another view is that Ms. Kardashian was simply aligning herself with those she believed could help her cause, which is not all that different from people and corporations that donate to political candidates on both sides of the political spectrum — a tactic that Mr. Trump was known to employ before his transition into politics.
To that end, last April Ms. Kardashian visited with Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House for more criminal justice work. In addition to posting a photo online of herself doing her signature pout on the White House lawn, she shared another image of her working directly with Ms. Harris.
“Honored to join Vice President Harris, criminal justice advocates and four incredible small business owners who received pardons at the White House Second Chance event!” Ms. Kardashian wrote on social media. “We got to hear the lived experiences of how convictions impact your life from the pardon recipients and discussed the changes the Small Business Administration made to allow people with criminal convictions to take out loans! Much more to do but grateful for progress.”
For the November election, Ms. Kardashian again opted not to endorse a candidate. She stayed quiet when Mr. Trump won.
But when she posted the Tesla photos this week, some people felt they were a pitch for Mr. Musk and, by extension, Mr. Trump — and they pounced.
“Maga mommy we see you,” the comedian and talk show host Desus Nice commented.
Another user, Wesley Sharlton, expressed a popular take: “Tell us who you voted for without saying who you voted for
.”
Without a doubt, Ms. Kardashian has other tenuous connections to Mr. Trump’s world beyond a party with Ms. Trump and some photos with Tesla products. Caitlyn Jenner, a Trump-supporting transgender activist, used to be married to Ms. Kardashian’s mother, and Ms. Kardashian’s ex-husband, Kanye West, has at times closely aligned himself with Mr. Trump. Yet, Ms. Kardashian’s personal feelings on Mr. Trump are not publicly known, and that is unlikely to change.
A representative for Ms. Kardashian declined to comment.
Has Kim Kardashian gone MAGA?
That question swirled around the internet this week after Ms. Kardashian, the reality show personality and pre-eminent social media influencer, posted a series of photographs of herself on Instagram and X posing in front of and inside a Tesla Cybercab.
She wore black heels and lace stockings over her signature nude-colored shapewear, with a garter belt and a puffy black jacket. An Optimus robot — that reportedly will be capable of doing practically anything, whether it’s operating a Cybertruck or frying an egg — sat in the driver’s seat.
There were pictures of Ms. Kardashian standing outside the vehicle. There were pictures of her sitting on the bot’s lap. A representative for Ms. Kardashian, who has concealed some sponsored content in the past, said no payments were received in exchange for the posts.
The timing was definitely curious. Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, has gained new prominence as one of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s most notable backers, and he has even been asked by Mr. Trump to join Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new “department of government efficiency.”
That connection was enough for people to start speculating about her motivations, and some went as far as connecting those posts with Ms. Kardashian’s apparent friendliness with Ivanka Trump, Mr. Trump’s daughter, to bolster the case that she had embraced Mr. Trump politically.
That speculation began in 2023, when Ms. Kardashian held a birthday celebration at Funke, an Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills, Calif. Many people were surprised that a photograph Ms. Kardashian posted on Instagram from that party featured her with a group that included Lauren Sánchez, the partner of Jeff Bezos, and Ms. Trump.
Ms. Trump, who was once a sought-after guest at social events, fell out of those circles, particularly among liberals, after her father’s time in the White House. That exclusion has carried on, even though she has remained mostly out of the public eye since her father’s first presidency, and she did not campaign for him in his effort for re-election.
A show of support from Ms. Kardashian — whose popularity can be attributed, at least in part, to her ability to keep the American public fixated on her while being utterly anodyne politically — was, at the very least, surprising.
Image
So why would Ms. Kardashian use her influential social media platform to amplify Tesla and Ms. Trump when they tend to be lightning rods among coastal liberals?
One clue might be her dedication to overhaul of the criminal justice system. The Trump family has aided her on that front in the past and will soon be back in power politically.
In 2018, Ms. Kardashian, whose father was a prominent attorney and businessman, became involved in an effort to help free Alice Marie Johnson, who was sentenced to life in prison for her involvement in a 1996 cocaine smuggling operation.
To get Ms. Johnson’s sentence commuted, Ms. Kardashian called Ms. Trump, who was then working at the White House as a director of the Office of Economic Initiatives and Entrepreneurship. They were assisted by Ms. Trump’s husband, Jared Kushner, who was working at the time as a senior adviser to Mr. Trump.
That May, Ms. Kardashian met with Mr. Trump at the White House, where she told him Ms. Johnson’s story.
In the forward to Ms. Johnson’s memoir, “After Life: My Journey from Incarceration to Freedom,” Ms. Kardashian wrote that a week after her White House meeting, she received a phone call from Mr. Trump informing her of his decision to grant clemency to Ms. Johnson.
In 2020, Ms. Johnson appeared in an ad that the Trump campaign aired during the Super Bowl. In it, she described leaving prison as the “greatest day” of her life and thanked him personally for giving her the freedom to “start over.”
Mr. Trump also granted clemency to a number of other prisoners whose releases Ms. Kardashian campaigned for. Despite the cooperation, Ms. Kardashian did not support Mr. Trump when he ran for re-election in 2020. In an interview with The New York Times that March, Ms. Kardashian said she would not be endorsing anyone in the race.
Mr. Trump did not like this. He was also not thrilled that Ms. Kardashian had responded to one of President Biden’s posts on social media with a series of heart emojis.
“I was disappointed in Kim,” he later said in an interview. “With Kim, I did a lot of prison reform that she couldn’t get done with anybody else.”
“I let people out of prison that I thought were deserving to be let out,” he added. “And then after it was all over, she announced that she’s not supporting me. And she only did that to be cool in Hollywood.”
Another view is that Ms. Kardashian was simply aligning herself with those she believed could help her cause, which is not all that different from people and corporations that donate to political candidates on both sides of the political spectrum — a tactic that Mr. Trump was known to employ before his transition into politics.
To that end, last April Ms. Kardashian visited with Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House for more criminal justice work. In addition to posting a photo online of herself doing her signature pout on the White House lawn, she shared another image of her working directly with Ms. Harris.
“Honored to join Vice President Harris, criminal justice advocates and four incredible small business owners who received pardons at the White House Second Chance event!” Ms. Kardashian wrote on social media. “We got to hear the lived experiences of how convictions impact your life from the pardon recipients and discussed the changes the Small Business Administration made to allow people with criminal convictions to take out loans! Much more to do but grateful for progress.”
For the November election, Ms. Kardashian again opted not to endorse a candidate. She stayed quiet when Mr. Trump won.
But when she posted the Tesla photos this week, some people felt they were a pitch for Mr. Musk and, by extension, Mr. Trump — and they pounced.
“Maga mommy we see you,” the comedian and talk show host Desus Nice commented.
Another user, Wesley Sharlton, expressed a popular take: “Tell us who you voted for without saying who you voted for
.”Without a doubt, Ms. Kardashian has other tenuous connections to Mr. Trump’s world beyond a party with Ms. Trump and some photos with Tesla products. Caitlyn Jenner, a Trump-supporting transgender activist, used to be married to Ms. Kardashian’s mother, and Ms. Kardashian’s ex-husband, Kanye West, has at times closely aligned himself with Mr. Trump. Yet, Ms. Kardashian’s personal feelings on Mr. Trump are not publicly known, and that is unlikely to change.
A representative for Ms. Kardashian declined to comment.
