Lil Wayne explained the circumstances that led to his infamous October 2020 photo with Donald Trump and revealed that he declined an offer to play at the president’s inauguration this year in a new cover story for Rolling Stone.
Wayne met Trump in Florida ahead of the 2020 election and said the picture was taken spur-of-the-moment during a meeting about criminal justice reforms and other initiatives for the Black community. The rapper said he was there that day because Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner was a big fan and was encouraging Trump to pardon Wayne on gun charges he’d soon face. (Wayne was charged in November 2020, and Trump did pardon him in January 2021.)
“He’s naming the exams that he crammed [to while listening to me], that I helped him,” Wayne said of Kushner. “He was like, ‘I’m not about to watch my hero go to jail for this.’ ”
Of Trump himself, Wayne joked that the president was “an asshole” of a wisecracker: “Ain’t take nothing serious,” Wayne said. “Literally in there saying shit like, ‘What do we have to do again? Shit, I forgot.’ ”
He also remembered the president joking around with his lawyer, Bradford Cohen, who also happened to be a contestant on The Apprentice (and once represented Trump himself). He recalled Trump and Cohen telling each other, “Fuck you!” and Trump cracking, “You got this motherfucker representing you? You’re going down!”
As for the photo, Wayne recalled: “There was some people in there like, ‘Y’all should take a picture.’ He didn’t even ask for a picture. [It’s] poppin’ in this bitch. And he has these nice little two things with him, too” (ostensibly meaning two women). “[Trump] says, ‘These motherfuckers asking me for fucking pictures all fucking day, man. Can we please?’ ”
Wayne continued, “I said, ‘It’s the president. OK.’ [Trump] was like, ‘Thank you. Bitches [been] bothering me all day.’ ”
Unsurprisingly, the photo garnered plenty of backlash — but just as unsurprising, none of it seemed to bother Wayne. “Fuck no, I don’t care about no backlash for nothin’ I do, you know me, man,” he said. “My mama woulda been mad if I ain’t smile. That might have been the only backlash I would have worried about.” He added of the perception that he is a Trump supporter because of the photo, “I don’t feel about it. I don’t give a fuck about that type of shit. Tell ’em my dick big though.”
Wayne went on to say he was asked to perform at Trump’s 2025 inauguration, but declined because “we had something to do.” He also said that, if he’d been asked to endorse Trump during the last election, he would’ve likely declined.
“I would’ve told him, ‘You probably don’t want that,’ because I don’t know what’s going on,” he said. “I can tell you who won the last game, but I can’t really … you know what I mean?”
