
TLC’s Chilli is insisting she is “not MAGA” in the wake of reporting on her donations to Trump-affiliated political action committees during the 2024 election cycle.
But a follow-up report on her social media activity over the past few years by progressive media outlet Meidas Touch tells a different story.
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Over the weekend, Meidas Touch and The Independent reported that FEC records show that in 2024, Rozonda Thomas of Stone Mountain, Georgia — a.k.a. Chilli — made donations to the Trump National Committee JFC and other Republican fundraising efforts totaling around $1,000.
The reporting came two weeks after Chilli reposted an anti-trans conspiracy theory falsely claiming that former First Lady Michelle Obama registered to vote as a man in 1994. Screenshots of the singer’s Instagram circulating online indicate the March 12 re-post remained on Chilli’s page for nearly 24 hours, according to entertainment site Eurweb. It has since been removed.
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In a March 28 Instagram post, Chilli addressed the Independent and Meidas Touch’s reporting and the Obama re-post.
“I WANT TO BE CLEAR: I am not MAGA and do not support any of the many policies that are causing great harm to the American people,” the singer wrote.
In an accompanying video, Chilli said that she has “the utmost respect and admiration for Michelle Obama” and would “never say or do anything that is disrespectful to her or to any woman.” She claimed to have had “no idea” that she’d reposted the conspiracy theory until she “started getting phone calls and text messages from everybody.” Noting that she is “not very computer savvy,” she claimed to have re-shared the post by mistake.
In her written message, Chilli claimed that her donations to Trump-affiliated fundraisers were also “a mistake.”
“I did not read the fine print. I thought I was supporting causes against human trafficking and for veterans,” she wrote.
But in addition to its reporting on her pro-Trump donations, Meidas Touch also noted that the “No Scrubs” singer follows several prominent MAGA figures on Instagram, including Donald Trump Jr., influencer Terrance K. Williams, and Fox News personality Tomi Lahren, as well as right-wing media outlet Newsmax.
On Tuesday, Meidas Touch published a follow-up report detailing Chilli’s apparent support for Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL). According to the outlet, the singer has liked dozens of the MAGA Republicans’ pro-
The outlet notes that Chilli appears to have unfollowed Donalds’ Instagram account since its initial reporting on her political donations. According to The Daily Beast, she has also unfollowed other MAGA figures. As of April 2, a search of the accounts she follows on Instagram no longer turns up Donalds, Williams, Lahren, Newsmax, or Donald Trump Jr.
As The Independent notes, this is not the first time Chilli has sparked speculation about her politics. Asked about the Black Lives Matter movement in 2017, the singer repeated a right-wing dogwhistle, telling the U.K.’s Channel 4 News that for her, “all lives matter.”
The latest controversy around Chilli’s politics and her attempted damage control comes as the singer is set to embark on a 34-city tour with TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, and En Vogue beginning in August, according to Rolling Stone.
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