Celebrity endorsements have taken over the 2024 presidential election, and in the last month, reggaeton artists like Anuel AA, Nicky Jam, and Justin Quiles have joined the legions of rappers, wrestlers, and comedians who have endorsed Donald Trump.
On August 30, Puerto Rican rappers Anuel and Quiles joined the Republican nominee onstage during a rally in Johnstown, PA, with the presidential candidate describing both musicians as “two amazing Puerto Rican musical legends.” Despite Trump taking a shot at both of the artists by asking the crowd if they knew “who the hell they are,” Anuel called the TV-host-turned-politician “the best president the world has seen” and made a short endorsement speech calling on all Puerto Ricans to vote for him in November. “Let’s make America great again,” Anuel told the crowd, parroting Trump’s political slogan.
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The following month, on September 13, Jam, the son of a Dominican mother and a Puerto Rican father, also joined Trump onstage, this time at a Las Vegas rally. After Trump misgendered Jam, calling him a “very hot woman,” Jam made a short endorsement speech, referencing his own origins while saying Trump must come back to the White House. “It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. President. People that come from where I come from, they don’t meet the president. So I’m lucky,” he said, wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat. “We need you. We need you back, right? We need you to be the president.”
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"In the last month, reggaeton artists like Anuel AA, Nicky Jam, and Justin Quiles have joined the legions of rappers, wrestlers, and comedians who have endorsed Donald Trump."
nicole froio
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After posting about the rally and making light of Trump introducing him as a woman — and clearly not knowing or caring who Jam actually is — many of Jam’s fans made fun of him in the comments, referring to him as a “sellout.” Soon after, Mexican pop-rock band Maná removed its 2016 song "De pies a cabeza" with Jam from online streaming platforms in protest of his support for Trump, saying that the band doesn't "work with racists" and that there is "no business or promotion that is worth more than the dignity of our people." After the backlash, the reggaetonero swiftly deleted any trace of his endorsement from Instagram. But before he did, fellow reggaetonero J Balvin commented “campeón” on the post, which some fans perceived as support for Jam’s endorsement of Trump. Somos reached out to the rapper’s teams for comment but did not receive a response.
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While the thought of Latine rappers endorsing Trump is confusing to some, it’s not for anyone who has followed these men’s careers. For instance, like Trump, who threw paper towels at survivors of Hurricane María at a relief center on the archipelago in 2017, Anuel insulted those who lost their homes because of the storm in his “Intocable” diss track in 2018. Similarly, some of these men have also been accused of mistreating women. During his first bid for presidency, Trump, who has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women, was heard in a viral audio clip gloating that his prominence allows him to “grab [women] by the pussy.” Meanwhile, in 2021, the Colombian rapper Balvin came under fire for a music video that featured him walking Black women around on a leash.
But beyond a shared history of sexism and racism allegations, as reggaetoneros who have made it big, their support for a Trump presidency would protect their wealth and class standing, as Trump has proposed tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy. Even more, as white Latine men who have benefited from white privilege throughout their careers in Black music genres, their continued investment in whiteness, despite ethnic, linguistic, or cultural differences, affords them clout in elite spaces.
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"As white Latine men who have benefited from white privilege throughout their careers in Black music genres, their continued investment in whiteness, despite ethnic, linguistic, or cultural differences, affords them clout in elite spaces."
NICOLE FROIO
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Similarly, as men born in Puerto Rico (Anuel and Quiles), the contiguous U.S. (Jam), and to a wealthy family in Colombia (Balvin), these artists are not directly impacted by an issue that does affect many of their Latine audiences in the States: immigration. Trump is an anti-immigration candidate who is responsible for leading the building of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, as well as the creation of xenophobic and costly immigration policies that have disrupted and torn apart Latine families because of deportation and expensive bureaucratic processes. However, these policies will hardly affect the reggaetoneros who endorsed him. Beyond the fact that rich people are able to simply buy their way into the U.S., none of these reggaetoneros has experience with the difficulties of migration.
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It’s important to listen to what these men are saying: Onstage in Pennsylvania, Anuel called on Latines to “keep doing things the right way” so Trump could help Latines in the U.S. Anuel’s words expose him as a kind of Latine we all know: the kind that thinks if they align themselves with the people who hate and oppress them then they will get a crumb of dignity and a seat at the table where decisions are made. The kind of Latine who believes that because they had the privilege to migrate to the contiguous U.S. legally, everyone else has access to the money and resources necessary to do that. The kind of Latine that truly believes human rights are conditional, depending on whether someone committed the crime of crossing an arbitrary border to escape untenable situations in Latin America that were sometimes influenced by the U.S. government itself.
This flawed position isn’t new, neither among Latines in the U.S. nor across Latin America. The history of Latine people — particularly those who are white and part of the elite — endorsing and supporting right-wing demagogues and fascists spans decades. We can even cite recent history: In Argentina, current president Javier Milei has been described as “the World’s Latest Wannabe Fascist” by Foreign Policy magazine, and in Brazil, right-wing leader Jair Bolsonaro was president for one term. These leaders, who stand for racism, homophobia, and an escalation of social violence, were all elected by Latin American people who live in the global south. While this might be surprising for some, within the Latine diaspora, there are white and rich people who are invested in these kinds of politicians because they will protect the interests of a privileged few rather than work to make society better for everyone.
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"Anuel’s words expose him as a kind of Latine we all know: the kind that thinks if they align themselves with the people who hate and oppress them then they will get a crumb of dignity and a seat at the table where decisions are made."
NICOLE FROIO
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The problem is the influence these rappers have over the Latine population and how they might vote in November.
While it’s essential to recognize that the current Democratic administration has largely continued the immigration policies put in place by the previous Trump administration, and that it’s urgent for voters to push a potential Kamala Harris administration more left when it comes to immigration, it’s also important to understand that endorsing Trump is an endorsement of an openly fascist candidate. It’s an endorsement of a candidate who would not care if most Latine people lived or died. It’s an endorsement that will aid the deportation and incarceration of our communities in the U.S. and the decimation of our communities in the continent. Of course, these men are free to support whoever they want as their presidential candidate as individual voters, but the fact that all of them invoked their Latine origins indicates that they want to influence the Latine population to vote Republican — even if it directly contradicts with the interests and wellbeing of the demographic as a whole.
Anuel, Quiles, Jam, and Balvin want to convince their audiences that voting for Trump will make their lives better. But no amount of support for Republicans will make Latines equal in the eyes of the far-right. They are just pawns in Trump’s political games. It’s deeply embarrassing that these reggaetoneros are supporting Trump while also representing reggaeton, a genre that was born out of Black and Caribbean resilience and resistance to white hegemony in Latin America. To endorse Trump publicly and urge Latines to vote for him is an utter betrayal of the genre, its roots, and its fans. It demonstrates how any ethnicity and culture can be used in politics to endorse the most heinous of policies.
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"These men are free to support whoever they want as their presidential candidate as individual voters, but the fact that all of them invoked their Latine origins indicates that they want to influence the Latine population to vote Republican — even if it directly contradicts with the interests and wellbeing of the demographic as a whole."
NICOLE FROIO
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It’s impossible to say whether these reggaetoneros truly regret their endorsement after days of online backlash, even if Jam deleted his endorsement post on Instagram. The fact they endorsed Trump at all — and didn’t expect any consequences to come out of it — is an indication of how deeply out of touch these men are from their own people, their struggles, and Latines’ precarious position in U.S. society.
The racism inherent in the Latin American music industry — which many Black and brown music critics have been shouting about for years — where white Latine artists are more broadly recognized and awarded than their Black and brown colleagues could only result in this: major artists endorsing a white supremacist. But make no mistake: Trump doesn’t care about Latine people, he doesn’t even care about the Latine people who support him.