Jake Paul Endorses Donald Trump, Compares Former President’s Status as a Convicted Felon to America’s Founding Fathers
Jake Paul, the widely followed social media star who’s become a professional boxer, endorsed Donald Trump and urged his followers to vote for the GOP candidate — even though Paul himself is unable to vote in the 2024 U.S. presidential election because he now lives in Puerto Rico.
In a YouTube video posted Thursday, Paul told viewers they should “do your own research” and that they shouldn’t base their voting decision on “your favorite pop star telling you to vote a certain way.” But he said he was presenting his perspective in hopes of encouraging undecided viewers to vote for Trump to “quite literally save America.”
More from Variety
Paul, 27, compared Trump’s felony convictions to the situation faced by America’s founding fathers in their fight for independence from the British monarchy. In May, a federal jury in New York found the former president guilty of 34 felony counts related to false invoices, checks and ledger entries over his $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
“Trump is labeled a ‘felon,’ but remember, the founders of this country were seen as felons by Britain because they demanded change,” Paul said in the video. “History shows that sometimes those who challenge the system are the ones who make a difference.”
At another point in the video, Paul said, “To be frank, I’m not concerned with Donald Trump’s ‘character flaws’ or what he’s done in the past. What I’m concerned with is how good a president is he, because that is his job and that’s what’s going to affect the people of this nation.”
Paul is set to fight Mike Tyson in a livestreamed boxing match on Netflix, with the event scheduled for Nov. 15 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT from the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. In endorsing Trump, “I’m putting my business, my career, on the line during my peak going in to fight Mike Tyson… because I don’t give a fuck what the consequences are,” Paul explained. He acknowledged he was “nervous” and “scared” to make the video because of “what it means for my career, my life, people coming after me, more accusations, more turmoil, more division potentially.”
In the nearly 19-minute video, Paul addressed the comment made by Tony Hinchcliffe at Trump’s Oct. 27 rally at Madison Square Garden in which he called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” Hinchcliffe “made a bad joke,” Paul said, adding that “him talking smack about Puerto Rico was not funny, and I wanted to shine a light on the fact that these are not Donald Trump’s views,” Paul said. He called the island “the most beautiful place on Earth” and said “the people here are absolutely incredible.”
Regarding the issue of abortion rights, Paul claimed that “Trump isn’t trying to take away rights but to allow each state to decide on this issue.” Trump, who has boasted about appointing Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, has said he would not sign a federal abortion ban but that individual states should have the ability to enact anti-abortion laws.
Paul then expressed his views on transgender people. “If you really cared about women and their opportunities and their lives, I think it would be better to have a president that doesn’t want biological men competing in women’s sports. How many opportunities over the last couple of years have been stripped from women who spend their whole entire lives in a sport hoping for opportunities [only] for it to be taken away by a biological male?” He added, “As a future father, you will find me dead before I send my daughter to a school where men can go into her bathroom and where men can compete against her in sports. It’s bullshit. That is taking away a woman’s rights.”
During the 2024 election cycle, Trump has engaged in a strategy of reaching out to young male voters. Last week, he appeared on Joe Rogan’s popular “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. In June, Trump recorded a podcast with Logan Paul, who is Jake’s older brother.
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.