50 Cent is banking on some gangster game recognizing gangster game in an effort to halt any pardon consideration for Sean “Diddy” Combs by Donald Trump.
After POTUS said on May 30 in the Oval Office that he would “certainly” consider clemency for Diddy are taking a “look at the facts,” the In Da Club rapper went into overdrive to deny his sex-trafficking trial facing rival any chance at a Commander-in-chief Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card, preemptive or not.
“He said some really bad things about Trump, it’s not ok,” Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson wrote online mere hours after the former Apprentice host made his comments about his old party pal Diddy. “Im gonna reach out so he knows how I feel about this guy.”
On trial in New York City since May 12, Combs could end up spending the rest of his life in prison if found guilty on federal charges of racketeering, sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and more. 50 Cent has been trolling Combs trial and testimony which saw his name brought up.
Today, sidestepping his own past critiques of Trump, the Power EP made it very personal about stopping Combs from getting any favors from the convicted felon in the White House. 50 said on Instagram Saturday: “Donald doesn’t take well to disrespect and doesn’t forget who chooses to go against him. while working tirelessly to make America great again there is no room for distraction. He would consider pardoning anyone who was being mistreated not Puffy Daddy”
With a jury of eight men and four women and the much-accused Diddy at the table next to his 10-person defense team, the lower Manhattan courtroom has heard explicit and sometimes heartrending testimony of rapes, emotional and physical violence, blackmail, and filmed drug juiced “freak-offs” from Combs former longtime girlfriend Cassie Ventura, and his ex-personal assistant “Mia.” As well, Kid Cudi also took the stand detailing Combs’ jealous actions during the Man on the Moon rapper’s short affair with Ventura. Ex-Combs’ staffers, law enforcement officials, “freak-off” male escorts and more have testified too in what is expected to be an eight to 10 week trial.
In an intriguing strategy that has an appeal baked in, the defense from the drop has admitted their client has committed domestic abuse, is a drug user, a swinger, and not a very nice guy. Attorney Teny Geragos mentioned all that in her opening statement. At the same time, the canny defense lawyer also made a point of mentioning that Combs isn’t charged with any of that and the government should own up to that.
Having handed out pardons to gang leaders, tax evading reality TV hosts, the relatives of donors, and January 6 insurgents, to name a few, over the past few months since returning to office, the teasing Trump insisted Friday that when it came to his once close friend Diddy’s criminal case that he hasn’t “been watching it too closely, although it’s certainly getting a lot of coverage.”
Coverage and media real estate being the true coin of the realm with Trump offered some insight of sorts on his current relationship with Combs.
“I haven’t seen him. I haven’t seen him. I haven’t spoken to him in years,” POTUS said with a DOGE departing Elon Musk at his side in the Oval Office. “He used to really like me a lot, but I think when I ran for politics, sort of that relationship busted up.”
To Trump’s backhanded credit, that’s putting it mildly on all counts.
For one thing, back in the late 1990s and 2000s, the Art of the Deal author and the All About the Benjamins performer used to hit the town together. In a video invite to Diddy’s birthday party in 1998, Trump was featured praising “the legendary Puff Daddy.” In his 2006 We Gon’ Make It track, Combs named dropped Trump as a rich man who lived large. As recently as 2015, as Trump began his first bid for the White House with attacks on immigrants, Combs unabashedly praised his fellow New Yorker. “Donald Trump is a friend of mine, and he works very hard,” Combs told the Washington Post.
(L-R) Cassie Ventura, Sean Combs, Donald Trump & Melania Trump at the United Nations on February 6, 2008 in NYC. (Photo by JOE SCHILDHORN/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
It was a very different state of affairs by 2020. As an incumbent Trump mounted an ultimately unsuccessful campaign against Joe Biden, Covid-19 had the country in chaos, and the killing of George Floyd by a now incarcerated Minneapolis cop saw millions take to the streets for social justice, Combs was bluntly dismissive of his once good friend.
“White men like Trump need to be banished,” Combs told Charlamagne tha God five years ago as the Bad Boy Records founder created his own political party dedicated to issues important to Black America. “That way of thinking is real dangerous,” Combs added, throwing his support behind ex-VP Biden.
“This man is trying to turn us against each other.”
With a quickly settled ($20 million) abuse and assault lawsuit filed by Ventura in late 2023 and a flurry of more sexual assault allegations plus federal raids on his Miami and LA homes, no one wanted an endorsement from Combs. Amid the deep beef between 50 Cent and Combs, the Die Rich or Die Tryin’ star had been pro-Trump in 2020, then pulled back his backing under duress from some other famous friends. In 2024 50 leaned in hard with claims that he turned down repeated offers to head out on the trail with the GOP candidate. 50 even said Trump offered him $3 million to be at his infamous and often racist October 27, 2024 Madison Square Garden rally.
Still, on Election Night, 50 Cent was full MAGA.
Before Trump stepped right into it in the Combs case this past week, there has been a lot of talk that members of Diddy’s circle have been reaching out to Trumpland about pardons. Trump said on May 30 that “no one has asked” him directly about such a move. Heading into next week, Combs’ trial is nearing the halfway point as the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York moves its case into the final stretch before handing things over to the defense.
In that context, the words of a man who had an even more deadly beef with Combs that 50 Cent now seem almost prophetic. “I think he got some favors with the government,” Suge Knight told Newsnation’s Chris Cuomo by phone on May 14 of Diddy. “I think they’re going to show him a little leeway,” the jailed Death Row Records founder added on the call.
“It might not seem like it when it’s all said and done, but I don’t think he had nothing to worry about,” Knight, who’s rivalry with Combs in the 1990s has long been assumed to be connected to the very public respective shootings of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. “I don’t think he’s worried, because he’s going to be federal. And if he gets convicted, Trump’s going to pardon him.”
As for 50 Cent, he didn’t have anything more to say about Diddy or Trump tonight. 50 was too busy watching his hometown New York Knicks go down to defeat to the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs.
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