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Blake Shelton seems to express support for Donald Trump as president in his new Billboard cover story. While he doesn’t outright endorse the Republican nominee, he does highlight what he sees as some of Trump’s attributes.
Shelton’s interview with the magazine was released on Thursday. Much of it entails the country superstar discussing how his divorce from Miranda Lambert and subsequent relationship with Gwen Stefani has affected his music. But politics also came up, too.
“In country music, we’re so politically correct and so afraid to possibly upset someone,” he says, which led to him being asked if he “supports” Trump. The singer responds, “I’m not going to have the political conversation with you about Trump, or about Hillary Clinton, but I will tell you this: Whether you love him or hate him, he says what he thinks, and he has proven that you don’t always have to be so afraid.”
Shelton continues. “A lot of people are pulling for him, no matter how much Hollywood fights it. I see people who don’t like him go and beat up people that do like him. You tell me, who’s crazy here?”
He does confirm he plans to vote in November, reportedly adding, “I probably wish there was another option, but there’s not.” Shelton hasn’t really mentioned Trump on social media, but did tweet earlier this week about the DNC email leak, and seemed to rejoice with Debbie Wasserman Schultz stepped down.
Noted Clinton support Debra Messing, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, has already tweeted her disapproval of Shelton’s Billboard comments. “Omg. How? @gwenstefani please talk to your man to not vote for the person who will STRIP you of your right,” she wrote. Neither Shelton nor Stefani has responded.
UPDATE: Shelton tweeted, “Hey before this gets going like it always does… I haven’t enforced ANYBODY for president [sic]. And I not going to. I don’t do that sh*t. My comment about ‘wish there was another option but there’s not’ is across the board…period. Now go dig up another story.” He added, “They can spin it how ever they want but it’s right there in plain English.”
