President Donald Trump has called for the pursuit of music superstar Beyonce over the weekend – based on something that didn’t really happened.
Trump claims in a social media publication that Beyonce has violated the law by supposedly a payment of $ 11 million for her approval by the candidate for democratic President Kamala Harris during an October 2024 event in Houston. But there is simply no reason to claim Trump that Beyonce received a $ 11 million payment related to the Harris campaign, let alone for approval more special.
Federal campaigns’ cost records show a $ 165,000 payment from the Harris campaign to Beyonce’s production company, which the campaign lists as an expense to “produce events in the campaign”. A spokesman for the Harris campaign told Deadline last year that they did not pay celebrity approvals, but is required by law to cover the costs associated with their appearances.
Despite the merits of this particular expense of $ 165,000, this is far from $ 11 million. No one has ever provided any evidence of the claim to pay Beyonce’s eight -digit approval, as the claim to be “$ 10 million” has begun to spread last year to Trump supporters on social media. Factcheck.org and Politifact facts verifying websites looked at the $ 10 million request during the campaign and found no basis for it.
The White House did not immediately respond to a CNN request at the end of Saturday for any evidence of a $ 11 million Trump figure. When Trump had previously referred to the unfounded figure, during an interview in February, he described his source in the worst conditions: “Someone just showed me something. They gave her $ 11 million.”
A spokesman for Harris directed CNN on Saturday at the November post on social media by Beyonce’s mother Tina Knowles, who called the claim to pay $ 10 million “lie” and noted that it had been downloaded from Instagram as “false information”.
“When actually: Beyonce did not get a penny to speak at the presidential candidate for candidate Kamala Harris (SIC) in Houston,” Knowles writes.
A Beyonce spokesman told Politifact in November that the payment for $ 10 million was “beyond the ridiculous.”
Singer Beyonce and Democrat nominee for US Vice President Kamala Harris embrace each other when they visit a rally at Harris’ campaign, in Houston, Texas, USA, October 25, 2024 – Marco Belo/Reuters
What Trump wrote Sunday
Trump has revived the false claim in a social media publication, published after midnight early on Sunday morning in Scotland, where he visits. He writes that he is looking at the fact that the Democrats “admit to paying, probably illegally, eleven million dollars to singer Beyonce for approval.”
Democratic officials actually reject the payment of $ 11 million. The White House did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for evidence of democratic recognition of such payment.
Trump continued to criticize other payments from the Harris campaign to organizations related to prominent approvals. He claims without evidence that these payments were inaccurately described in cost records. And he mistakenly claims to be “completely illegal” to pay for political approval, although no federal law prohibits approval payments.
Trump concluded, “Kamala and all those who have received money for approval have violated the law. All of them should be persecuted! Thank you for your attention on this.”
Trump repeatedly calls for the prosecution of political opponents. His Saturday post on the approval of Harris and celebrities was an escalation from a publication in May when he said he would call for a “big investigation” on the topic, but did not express explicitly the prosecutor’s office.
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