Ice Cube—the man who once penned the gangster-rap anthem “Fuck Tha Police” and more recently “Arrest the President”—announced on Wednesday that he’s been consulting the Trump campaign on some of their policies aimed at winning over Black voters.
Since the nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism earlier this summer, Ice Cube has focused his attention on building and promoting his Contract With Black America. The CWBA is a regularly updated set of policies aimed at addressing racial inequality across a number of different industries, including banking, judicial, and police reform. The rapper said during a livestream interview with TMZ in September that his “end game” for the 2020 election is to see either Trump or Biden sign off on the contract.

And it seems this goal has almost come to fruition as the policies he’s put forth have not only sparked interest from both ends of the political spectrum, but led him to help the Trump campaign adjust parts of its political strategy. “Facts: I put out the CWBA. Both parties contacted me. Dems said we’ll address the CWBA after the election,” the rapper tweeted. “Trump campaign made some adjustments to their plan after talking to us about the CWBA.”
Ice Cube insisted that this revelation that he’s working with Republicans does not mean he’s suddenly a Trump supporter, adding in a follow-up tweet, “Every side is the Darkside for us here in America. They’re all the same until something changes for us. They all lie and they all cheat but we can’t afford not to negotiate with whoever is in power or our condition in this country will never change. Our justice is bipartisan.” He continued, “Black progress is a bipartisan issue. When we created the Contract With Black America we [expected] to talk to both sides of the [aisle]. Talking truth to power is part of the process.”
However, the rapper’s lack of enthusiasm for the sitting president hasn’t deterred Trump’s advisors from touting his involvement. On Tuesday, Trump’s senior campaign advisor Katrina Pierson tweeted, “Shoutout to @icecube for his willingness to step up and work with @realDonaldTrump Administration to help develop the #PlatinumPlan. Leaders gonna lead, haters gonna hate. Thank you for leading,” signing off with a black fist emoji.