US Politics
TLC’s Chilli claims donations to Trump campaign were a ‘mistake,’ says she’s not MAGA
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
Read more
TLC member Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas has clarified that she does not support Donald Trump’s MAGA movement after FEC records showed she had made several donations to his 2024 presidential campaign.
Over the weekend, the 55-year-old R&B singer made headlines after federal political donation records emerged showing that she had made donations totalling $210.60 to WinRed, the payment processor for Republican campaign donations, $340.60 to the Trump National Committee JFC, and $486.54 to Never Surrender Inc., a political fundraising group with links to Trump.
Responding to criticism from some fans in a recent Instagram statement, Thomas wrote: “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.”
“I made a mistake too many make: I did not read the fine print. I thought I was supporting causes against human trafficking and for veterans,” she explained. “Two things I care deeply about as my dad is a veteran and everyone knows I love children.”
Asking for “grace as I navigate this,” she concluded, “I have learned a valuable lesson.”
In the post’s second slide, Thomas included a video directly addressing the uproar she caused recently after resharing an Instagram post containing a conspiracy theory that falsely claimed that Michelle Obama is a transgender woman.
Calling the online chatter “very concerning,” Thomas said: “I have the utmost respect and admiration for Michelle Obama, and I would never say or do anything that is disrespectful to her or to any woman. I would never do that.”
She claimed that she had “no clue that this repost had happened until I started getting phone calls and text messages from everybody.”
“I immediately went to my page to see what was going on,” Thomas continued. “Now, mind you, I am not very computer-savvy, so I’m looking for this repost button, and I see that all of these buttons are very, very close to each other, and clearly, I was scrolling, and my thumb hit the repost button.
“Again, I had no clue that something like this happened until I got all the calls,” she reiterated.
Thomas joined TLC in 1991, replacing founding member Crystal Jones. She completed the girl group’s classic lineup alongside Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes. The trio is best known for their 1999 smash hit, “No Scrubs.”
Thomas previously faced backlash for saying “all lives matter” in a 2017 interview when asked about her feelings regarding the Black Lives Matter movement.
The phrase “all lives matter” became a right-wing slogan in response to BLM and has been widely criticized as denying that police violence and discrimination disproportionately affect Black Americans.
“I personally didn’t go to any marches or anything like that. For me, all lives matter, you know what I mean?” Thomas told the UK’s Channel 4 News.
“Because there is a time when different groups are targeted for different things. So I just think that what happened, even with the police brutality against these young Black boys and stuff like that — all of that kind of stuff is wrong,” Thomas said.
“Even if it was a caucasian teen kid that this was happening to, it’s just not right. And some people will take that authoritative position and go crazy with it, obviously. I think that before people are hired in these positions, they need to do some kind of better background check or mental stability check on them to see if they can really handle being in a position like that.”
