(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) President Donald Trump’s triumph against all odds to sweep the popular vote in the November 2024 election has put his most vocal detractors in a delicate position.
Not only, it seems, do most people no longer care about the opinions of tone-deaf, hypocritical Hollywood celebrities, but they actively do the opposite.
Some, such as Ellen DeGeneres and Richard Gere, have gracefully conceded defeat by making good on pre-election promises to leave America.
Others, such as 2020 election-theft bankroller Mark Zuckerberg, have tucked in their tails and exhibited an unsettling new fealty toward Trump, who would be wise to keep such sycophants at arms length while still leveraging whatever he can from his new fair-weather “oligarch” friends.
Yet, others are hoping simply to memory-hole their past offenses and start afresh, as if they were objectively neutral parties from the very beginning.
The ongoing efforts of Bud Light to rehabilitate its irreparably tarnished image during Sunday’s Super Bowl stood as one of the greatest testaments to the hubris of said ex-social-justice warriors.
The beer brand has done everything short of begging after it offended its customer base through a partnership with transgender social-media “influencer” Dylan Mulvaney that caused its profits to bottom out.
It has since reached out to several MAGA-friendly institutions, including the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which made Bud Light its “official” beer in 2023.
In addition to bringing back its beloved Clydesdale horses, Anheuser–Busch won the night on Sunday with one of the funnier commercials, starring politically incorrect comic Shane Gillis—who, appropriately enough, was the victim of cancel culture after getting booted off the cast of ultra-woke Saturday Night Live.
Having now become a symbol for conservative conquest over ESG bullying, Bud Light may still find it hard to shake the stigma. If customers were to relent, it would offer a road map for other corporate offenders to seek absolution—thus undermining the “go woke, go broke” message that boycotters were trying to send in the first place.
Yet, the company whose bullfrogs and “Whassssuppp” guys will always live in the annals of Super Bowl commercial greatness were not the most shameless attempt at rehabilitation during the recent NFL championship game—at which Trump made history by becoming the first sitting president to attend.
Calvin “Snoop Dogg” Broadus Jr.—the 1990s rapper who has made a second career out of self-parodying his marijuana use and “gangsta” lifestyle on shows like VH1’s Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party—cashed in whatever “street cred” he had left in a commercial with recently retired NFL great Tom Brady.
The commercial, calling on viewers to “stand up to all hate,” was paid for by the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, which was founded by New England Patriots owner and mac ‘n’ cheese magnate Robert Kraft.
“I hate that things are so bad that we have to do a commercial about it,” lamented Broadus, a former member of the Crips gang in south-central Los Angeles.
The message itself was laudable—and authentic, given the fact that Kraft, who had gifted Columbia University an entire building to house a Jewish student-life center, was forced to pull his financial support over the school’s coddling of Hamas-backing student–terrorists who harrassed Jews during protests last year.
Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion who long served as Kraft’s franchise quarterback, was a logical choice due to his mostly squeaky-clean, whitebread image.
Moreover, both Brady and Kraft are rumored to be longtime Trump supporters, although the brand-conscious QB never overtly endorsed the lightning-rod president.
Congratulations to Tom Brady on yet another great victory- Tom is my friend and a total winner!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2015
Indeed, the Pats’ legendary signal-caller notably skipped a visit to the White House during Trump’s first presidency, along with many of his teammates, despite attending an Obama event and making multiple appearances during the George W. Bush presidency.
On the other hand, while Brady has remained diplomatic to a fault and quietly led by example, Broadus has not always practiced what he preached.
In 2018, the “Gin and Juice” rapper weighed in on the NFL’s anthem-kneeling controversy by saying, “The president said he wants to make America great again, f— that shit, we’re going to make America crip again.”
He followed that up with a single, “Make America Crip Again,” that featured album art of a cadaver in a morgue, covered by an American flag, with a “Trump” toe tag.
A previous music video showed Broadus aiming a handgun at a clown dressed as Trump.
Then-Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who is now Trump’s secretary of State, condemned the video at the time, as reported by Breitbart.
“Snoop shouldn’t have done that,” Rubio told TMZ “… You know, we’ve had presidents assassinated before in this country, so anything like that is really something that you should be very careful about.”
In July 2024, Trump became the first president since Ronald Reagan in 1981 to face a serious assassination attempt after a bullet grazed his ear during a rally in Butler, Pa. Bystander Corey Comperatore was killed in the attack.
Just two months later, a second would-be assassin was thwarted after staking out Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla. golf club.
As Rubio noted in reaction to the Snoop Dogg music video, calls to violence like those repeatedly made against Trump by prominent figures on the Left posed a legitimate risk of inciting actual violence, whether intentional or not.
“[Y]ou’ve got to be very careful about that kind of thing, because the wrong person sees that and gets the wrong idea, you can have a real problem,” Rubio said. “So I’m not sure what Snoop was thinking—he should think about that a little bit.”
The controversy over the video resurfaced in January after Broadus was announced as one of the performers at Trump’s inauguration.
Snoop Dog (hard to even write that stupid name) is now cool with President Trump after this DISGUSTING ACT?
I don’t give a fk where it happened or what it’s about – Simulating a point-blank execution of the head is WICKED BRUTALITY.
Screw that freak! pic.twitter.com/HvS1ntdzQ7
— 🇺🇸ProudArmyBrat (@leslibless) January 18, 2025
Some noted that he had previously suggested that any black performers who participated in Trump’s first inauguration should be labeled as “Uncle Tom”—a pejorative for subservient blacks, dating back to the days of slavery.
In 2017, Snoop Dogg asked who the first "Uncle Tom" performing at Donald Trump's inauguration was gonna be.
Last night, Snoop performed at the Crypto Ball. pic.twitter.com/Ry8UMFl6QQ
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) January 18, 2025
While there were no prominent black performers at the 2017 ceremony, Kraft donated $1 million to the inaugural committee. (He also made substantial donations to support former President Barack Obama.)
Broadus’s past insults notwithstanding, some Trump surrogates—including influencer Bo Loudon, a close friend of Barron Trump—were happy to welcome the famous rapper into the MAGA fold at this year’s event.
Hanging with the legendary Snoop Dogg, who is set to perform at President Trump's inauguration.
President Trump is unifying the country and will bring us into the GOLDEN AGE!
Welcome to MAGA, Snoop! pic.twitter.com/Bq3plmttzV
— Bo Loudon (@BoLoudon) January 18, 2025
However, several conservative pundits continued to question the propriety of using Broadus as the messenger in FCAS commercial, pointing to his long history of glorifying—and participating in—violence.
Let us not forget the songs about k*lling police officers. One song, Deep Cover. Look those disgusting lyrics up. He also did a parody k*lling Trump. @SnoopDogg can f*ck completely off, also. The days of back st*bbing and plotting against Trump from the inside are over.
We went…— James mosher (@feedomfighter88) February 4, 2025
Anyone else think it’s ironic and hypocritical…
Snoop portrayed shooting President Trump in the head a few years ago in his rap video…
Is now featured in a halftime commercial talking about stopping the hate?
Or is it just me?
— David J Harris Jr (@DavidJHarrisJr) February 10, 2025
Ben Sellers is the editor emeritus of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
