Donald Trump is hitting pause on any plans to pardon music mogul Diddy, revealing in a recent NewsMax interview that the idea has become “more difficult” given Diddy’s past criticism of him.
The former Bad Boy Records head, who was convicted on prostitution charges in May, is now facing a colder stance from Trump, despite what the former president described as a once “very friendly” relationship.
“I got along with him great, and [he] seemed like a nice guy. I didn’t know him well,” Trump said of Diddy. But things took a turn during Trump’s 2020 run for office, where Diddy was openly critical of the then-president’s leadership and rhetoric.
“When I ran for office, he was very hostile. It’s hard, you know? We’re human beings. And we don’t like to have things cloud our judgment, right? But when you knew someone and you were fine, and then you run for office, and he made some terrible statements. So I don’t know …. it makes it more difficult to do,” Trump added.
The tension between the two public figures is rooted in long-standing comments Diddy made years ago, including a 2019 interview with Charlamagne tha God, where the music mogul stated that “white men like Trump” should be “banished.”
Now, with Diddy’s legal troubles unfolding in real time, any talk of a potential pardon has shifted from maybe to unlikely. Though Trump noted that he believed Diddy is “half-innocent,” his remarks made it clear that personal history and public statements have heavily influenced his current view.