Ice Cube Reveals Why He’d Be Open to Voting for Donald Trump

Ice Cube said that he would be open to voting for President Donald Trump, if he could come around on some of the issues that Ice Cube feels neither side is addressing. The rapper and actor gave an interview on TMZ Live on Wednesday, discussing the “Contract with Black America” that he wants the next president to sign. If Trump was the one to agree to it, he says, he could earn Ice Cube’s vote.

Ice Cube introduced his “Contract with Black America” back in July, and it has been steadily gaining traction as one of the concrete goals of the burgeoning civil rights movement this summer. It calls on lawmakers to make concrete, policy-based promises to Black Americans in order to end systemic racism. On Wednesday, he admitted that seeing the contract signed by a candidate is his only goal for the 2020 presidential election. If Trump were to sign it before Biden, Ice Cube says his support would go to the incumbent.

“Both sides have contacted us, and what I see is, both sides understand that something big needs to be done,” he said. “What I think the Biden campaign should really be scared of is, you know, Trump could actually do it. He can try to implement it before the election. I’m ready to fight for Black people, and I’m not concerned about too many other things right now, we’ve been concerned about so many other things and so many other issues that benefit everybody but us, and it’s time for us to benefit. Somebody needs to step up to the plate and do it.”

Ice Cube confirmed that representatives of both campaigns have been in contact with him about his contract, but did not indicate whether either of them is close to endorsing it openly. He said: “The end game is to get a candidate to adopt this plan, because it’s needed for Black America. You know, we’ve all got our favorite candidate that we want to win, but the thing is, we need this done. No more time to talk. No more promises. That’s the end game, it’s to pressure the candidates to adopt some of things that’s in this plan that — across the board — they all agree with.”

However, Ice Cube gave more details on his discussions with the Biden camp than with Trump’s staff. He emphasized his focus on concrete, economic policies, not identity politics or social issues.

“We talked about a few things. Making sure that a fair amount of government contracts to go Black businesses. And I say Black specifically because the word ‘minority’ has actually hurt us, because every minority usually gets something but us,” he said. “I really want to focus on economics. This is something that we really need, I think economics could fix a lot of these other social problems. They’re moving full speed on social issues. The same amount of energy needs to go into getting us out of this economic hole that Black people have found ourselves in generation after generation. We have to close this wealth gap.”

The full “Contract with Black America” is available to read and to sign online. Ice Cube elaborated on the need for this plan in an op-ed for The Hill.