MAGA support for Tory Lanez reeks of cynicism

Conservatives are turning rapper Tory Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, into a cause célèbre.

At face value, this may seem like an odd turn of events. The MAGA movement has spent years peddling stories that portray immigrants as violent criminals who terrorize American citizens. And President Donald Trump has described himself as a “protector” of women. So one might wonder why a violent immigrant from Canada, one who has taunted a victim of his violence, has garnered so much right-wing support. The answer appears to be a toxic mix of misogyny and cynical politicking.

On Tuesday, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican who’s known for peddling conspiracy theories about the justice system, called for Lanez to receive a pardon, regurgitating unsubstantiated claims — made recently by Lanez’s lawyers, as well — that he was railroaded at his trial over a 2020 shooting that injured fellow artist Megan Thee Stallion. A Los Angeles jury convicted Lanez of three felonies, including assault with a semi-automatic firearm.

There’s little reason to think Lanez’s latest claims of prosecutorial misconduct differ from his previous failed effort to make such claims in court. But nonetheless, this narrative has been spread by pro-Trump influencers, such as Tomi Lahren. It also has been spread by a number of Black MAGA influencers, who appear eager to promote the story as one about a Black man mistreated by the justice system rather than a seemingly unrepentant violent criminal who was convicted by a jury of his peers. Pro-Trump influencer DJ Akademiks and Fox News personality Gianno Caldwell are just a few examples of the latter. (Caldwell even threw in some George Soros conspiracism during a recent Fox News segment in which he baselessly alleged that a “Soros-funded” prosecutor “railroaded” Lanez.)

And various rappers with their own controversial histories — including Drake, who has publicly criticized Trump in the past, and avowed Trump supporters Ye and Kodak Black — have put on their capes and called for Lanez to be pardoned, in some sort of hypermasculine pile-on that Meg Thee Stallion has denounced. It’s not unlike what occurred during the trial.

So what we’re seeing now is a conglomerate of conservative voices, including Black rappers and white Republicans alike, running to the defense of a convicted criminal who is serving a 10-year sentence after harming a Black woman.

And the cynical incentives for MAGA followers to join this conspiratorial push seem clear. It allows for the continued victimization of Megan Thee Stallion, someone who — like other celebrities Trump has attacked recently — supported Kamala Harris during the 2024 election and has faced right-wing backlash for doing so. It helps conservatives sow conspiratorial anger toward liberal-led California. It plays into conservatives’ perverse ideology that constantly portrays men as victims of a feminist society. And, perhaps most dubiously, it allows conservatives to continue their bizarre trend of using alignment with violent rappers to try to convey some sort of sympathy for the plight of Black men, as if misogynistic rappers are avatars for the Black community.

I’ve written previously about the MAGA movement’s efforts to use rappers to advance its political causes. So, with that in mind, the MAGA fervor surrounding Lanez seems par for the course.