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With excitement brewing over Anderson Cooper’s Rick Rubin interview for CBS’s 60 Minutes, some are asking why he forgot to ask Rick why he “loves” Donald Trump.
Rick, full name Frederick Jay Rubin, is an American record producer. He co-founded Def Jam Recordings, founded American Recordings, and is the former president of Columbia Records.
He has produced records for the likes of Run-DMC, LL Cool J, System Of A Down, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash and Jay-Z.
Many respect his judgement on musical matters; people don’t know so much about his political tastes. But there is one reason why people have taken to labelling Rick Rubin a Trump supporter, and it harkens back to November 2021.
Here’s why people are saying Rick Rubin ‘loves’ Donald Trump
According to an Instagram post by rapper Talib Kweli, it was Rick Rubin that first convinced Kanye West to support Donald Trump.
On November 13, 2021, Kweli (who is one half of hiphop collaboration Black Star, with Mos Def aka Yasiin Bey aka Dante Terrell Smith) wrote on Instagram about the “last couple of times” he and Kanye West (aka Ye) hung out.
He said he was responding to a request to do so that had come from Ye himself. “Kanye told me privately,” he wrote in the caption, “that he no longer supports Trump.”
“He blamed his support for Trump on Rick Rubin,” Kweli added. “He also said that Rick Rubin is the one who told him to link with Candace Owens.”
Has Rick Rubin ever said or tweeted anything about Donald Trump?
Possibly, sort of. Spin reported in July 2017 that Rubin had broken a three-year Twitter silence to retweet a post from author and cartoonist Scott Adams.
He’s the creator of the Dilbert comic strip, and predicted that Trump would win the 2016 presidential election. Adams rejected the notion that he himself was a Trump supporter, despite having praised what he called Trump’s “talent stack.”
He said the “Donald Trump apologist” label ended his public speaking career and reduced his income by two-fifths. It also reportedly reduced his number of friends by three-quarters.
The post of Scott Adams’ that Rubin reportedly retweeted (the tweet is not publicly viewable) was a Periscope video (no longer available) offering what Spin describes as “rhetorical analysis” about a meeting between Trump and Putin.
So it’s not entirely clear how Rubin feels about Trump
As Spin’s article admits, Rubin is tightlipped about his own politics. It is therefore “tough” to know whether his retweet counts as an “endorsement, a refutation, or something else.”
And Kweli’s description of Kanye West’s version of events with regard to Rubin’s role in guiding him towards Donald Trump may have convinced some that Rubin is in fact a Trump acolyte.
But in lieu of anything concrete from Rubin himself, it may not mean much.
In addition to this, Reddit users discussing the claim that Rubin “redpilled Ye” and “linked him with Candace” have been defending the music producer, saying that Ye is an “adult that still makes his own decisions regardless of someone’s influence or suggestions.”
Rubin attended Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton presidential debate
Very few people claim to know anything about Rubin’s politics. And that is likely the way he likes it.
He did, however, attend the first presidential debate between Trump and Hillary in 2016. It took place at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. But his attendance doesn’t necessarily mean anything more than that he has an interest in politics in general, or at the very least had a vested interest in the outcome of the election.
One thing he does have in common with the former president is a love for pro wrestling. RIYL Mag called it one of Rubin’s “favorite rhetorical cul-de-sacs.”
“It’s the most honest form of information in our society,” Rubin said. “Pro wrestling is the most accurate representation of life.” Trump, meanwhile, is among the WWE’s list of “superstars.”
