Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
After months of flirting with open support for the Trump administration, Kim Kardashian has apparently decided that now is a good time to speak up against ICE. In Venice on Thursday — where she was honored for her prison-reform advocacy at Diane von Fürstenberg’s DVF Awards — Kardashian spoke out about the ongoing ICE raids that have been terrorizing immigrants in the U.S. during Donald Trump’s second term as president, per Variety. “In the news you hear, ‘Oh, it’s about people who have committed these crimes and they’re trying to help out our country,’” Kardashian said, when asked her thoughts on the raids. “But then you hear about all of the people who have worked so hard to build our country, and so many people that are such a part of our country getting affected. People I know. People my friends know.”
To be clear, plenty of Kardashian’s “friends” are people in Trump’s orbit. She made several visits to the White House during the president’s first term as part of said prison-reform efforts and is not infrequently seen hanging out with her longtime friend Ivanka Trump. More recently, she spent a lot of time promoting the work of Trump’s former First Buddy, Elon Musk. And though she didn’t endorse anyone in the 2024 election, she did share a photo of Melania Trump to her Instagram Story on Inauguration Day, seemingly indicating she at the very least wasn’t that upset about the new administration. But I guess now that Trump and his signature ICE raids are affecting people she actually knows and not just the racist caricature Trump keeps propagandizing about, it’s no longer feeling so cozy.
Responding to Kardashian’s remarks, White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson told TMZ, “President Trump is fulfilling his promise to the American people to deport criminal illegal aliens and Make America Safe Again — no matter what elite Hollywood celebrities have to say about it.”
Kardashian first started talking about the ICE raids in June when she posted an Instagram statement amid widespread anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles. “When we’re told that ICE exists to keep our country safe and remove violent criminals — great. But when we witness innocent, hardworking people being ripped from their families in inhumane ways, we have to speak up. We have to do what’s right,” she wrote in a statement on her Instagram Story at the time. “No matter where you fall politically, it’s clear that our communities thrive because of the contributions of immigrants,” she added. “We can’t turn a blind eye when fear and injustice keep people from living their lives freely and safely. There HAS to be a BETTER way.” If there is, let’s hope she finds it soon.
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