President Donald Trump is demanding a “major investigation” into celebrities like Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey and Bono, purporting that they were illegally paid to endorse former Vice President Kamala Harris during her 2024 presidential campaign.
In a late-night post on TruthSocial, Trump presumed that these major entertainers were compensated to endorse Harris personally and that their payments were cloaked as entertainment fees for performances at her campaign events. He posted no evidence to support these allegations.
“HOW MUCH DID KAMALA HARRIS PAY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FOR HIS POOR PERFORMANCE DURING HER CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT? WHY DID HE ACCEPT THAT MONEY IF HE IS SUCH A FAN OF HERS? ISN’T THAT A MAJOR AND ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION? WHAT ABOUT BEYONCÉ? …AND HOW MUCH WENT TO OPRAH, AND BONO???” Trump wrote.
“I am going to call for a major investigation into this matter. Candidates aren’t allowed to pay for ENDORSEMENTS, which is what Kamala did, under the guise of paying for entertainment. In addition, this was a very expensive and desperate effort to artificially build up her sparse crowds. IT’S NOT LEGAL! For these unpatriotic ‘entertainers,’ this was just a CORRUPT & UNLAWFUL way to capitalize on a broken system. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!”
Just hours after that post, Trump singled out Beyoncé, citing “news reports” that alleged she was paid $11 million to walk onto a stage and “quickly endorse” Kamala.
“According to news reports, Beyoncé was paid $11,000,000 to walk onto a stage, quickly ENDORSE KAMALA, and walk off to loud booing for never having performed, NOT EVEN ONE SONG! Remember, the Democrats and Kamala illegally paid her millions of Dollars for doing nothing other than giving Kamala a full throated ENDORSEMENT. THIS IS AN ILLEGAL ELECTION SCAM AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL! IT IS AN ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION! BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, OPRAH, BONO AND, PERHAPS, MANY OTHERS, HAVE A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO!!!” Trump’s post read.
Beyoncé rarely responds directly to online criticism or controversy, maintaining a distance that keeps her above most public feuds. This lack of engagement leaves her fans to take up the mantle of defense, often with even greater intensity.
Beyoncé’s fanbase, known as the Beyhive, is famously passionate and protective. Historically, they have mobilized en masse to defend her against perceived slights, often flooding critics’ social media with bee emojis and harsh responses.
“The BeyHive is not going to be happy!!!! That’s a fight I think Trump won’t win!,” one person said on X.
Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, denounced those allegations months ago, stating her daughter “did not receive a penny for speaking at a Presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris’s Rally in Houston. In fact, she actually paid for her own flights for her and her team, and total Glam.”
Campaign finance records show that Harris’ campaign paid Beyoncé’s production company, Parkwood Production Media LLC, $165,000 a month after the Houston event.
Oprah Winfrey and her team have also previously stated that Winfrey received “no personal fees,” after Harris’s campaign paid her production company, Harpo Productions, $1 million last October to cover the costs for a town hall Winfrey’s production company helped put together in Michigan.
“The campaign paid for the production costs of ‘Unite for America,’ a livestreaming event that took place Sept. 19 outside Detroit, Mich.,” a spokesperson for Harpo said in a statement to Variety. “Oprah Winfrey was at no point during the campaign paid a personal fee, nor did she receive a fee from Harpo.”
Trump’s accusations come shortly after intense criticism from Springsteen at a concert on the European leg of his “Land, Hope, Dreams Tour.” Springsteen told audience members in Manchester, England, that America “is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”
The president went after Springsteen a day later, calling him a “pushy, obnoxious JERK,” and a “dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker.”
“I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States. Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country. This dried out ’prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”
But a defiant Springsteen did not let up on his backlash. According to the Los Angeles Times, he only doubled down on the denunciation at a second concert in Manchester on May 17.
“In my home, they’re persecuting people for their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. That’s happening now,” Springsteen said. “In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. That’s happening now. In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers.”
After the 2024 election, the Harris campaign denied paying personal fees to artists or performers. Campaign advisors told Deadline that campaign finance laws required them to pay for some performance costs related to travel or production, but they stressed that the campaign had followed all campaign finance laws “religiously.”
“We do not pay. We have never paid any artist and performer. We have never paid a fee to that person,” Adrienne Elrod, senior adviser and senior spokesperson for the Harris campaign, stated. “There are laws that have to be followed that we have followed religiously on this campaign.”
