Trump calls to prosecute Beyoncé and Oprah in dignified rage post

This is not a new conspiracy theory. Last November, both Beyoncé and Oprah Winfrey were accused of accepting bribes for their endorsements by online cranks and scammers. Around that time, Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, responded to a video by conspiracy theorist Candace Owens, who accused the singer of taking millions for her endorsement. “The lie is that Beyoncé was paid 10 million dollars to speak at a rally in Houston for Vice President Kamala Harris,” Knowles wrote on Instagram. “When In Fact: Beyoncé did not receive a penny for speaking at a Presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris’s Rally in Houston. She actually paid for her own flights for her and her team.”

According to CNN, campaign records indicate that the Harris campaign paid $165,000 to Beyoncé’s production company for “campaign event production.” Oprah explained how this works pretty well when the conspiracy first emerged last November. “Usually I am reluctant to respond to rumors in general, but these days I realize that if you don’t stop a lie, it gets bigger. I was not paid a dime,” she wrote. “My time and energy was my way of supporting the campaign. For the live streaming event in September, my production company Harpo was asked to bring in set design, lights, cameras, crew, producers and every other item necessary (including the benches and the chairs we sat on) to put on a live production. I did not take any personal fee. However, the people who worked on that production needed to be paid. And were. End of story.” Either way, it appears that Trump has successfully shifted the conversation. What can we say, the guy’s playing 4-D Chess.