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'Suspicious $11 million payment at Kamala Harris rally,' Trump seeks criminal prosecution of Beyonce
2025-07-28 11:05:30 / BOTA
President Donald Trump over the weekend called for the criminal prosecution of music superstar Beyoncé – based on something that didn't actually happen.
Trump claimed in a social media post that Beyoncé broke the law by allegedly being paid $11 million for her endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris during an October 2024 event in Houston.
But there is simply no basis for Trump's claim that Beyoncé received an $11 million payment in connection with Harris' campaign, let alone for the endorsement in particular.
Federal campaign spending records show a $165,000 payment from Harris’ campaign to Beyoncé’s production company, which the campaign listed as a “campaign event production” expense. A Harris campaign spokesperson told Deadline last year that they did not pay celebrity supporters, but were legally required to cover costs associated with their appearances.
Despite the merits of this particular $165,000 expense, it is far from an $11 million expense. No one has ever provided any evidence for the claim of an eight-figure payment in support of Beyoncé since the “$10 million” claim began circulating among Trump supporters on social media last year. Fact-checking websites FactCheck.org and PolitiFact reviewed the “$10 million” claim during the campaign and found no basis for it.
The White House did not immediately respond to a CNN request late Saturday for any evidence of Trump's $11 million figure. When Trump previously mentioned the baseless figure, during an interview in February, he described his source in the vaguest terms: "Someone just told me something. They gave her $11 million."
A spokesperson for Harris referred CNN on Saturday to a November social media post by Beyoncé's mother, Tina Knowles, who called the claim of a $10 million payment a "lie" and noted that it was removed from Instagram as "false information."
" When in fact: Beyonce didn't take a dime at presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris's rally in Houston ," Knowles wrote.
A Beyoncé spokesperson told PolitiFact in November that the claim of a $10 million payout is "beyond ridiculous."
Trump revived the false claim in a social media post published just after midnight early Sunday morning from Scotland, where he is visiting. He wrote that he is looking into “the fact” that Democrats “admit they paid, possibly illegally, eleven million dollars to singer Beyoncé for an ENDORSEMENT.”
Democratic officials have denied the claim of an $11 million payment. The White House did not immediately respond to CNN's request for any evidence of Democratic acceptance of such a payment.
Trump continued to criticize other payments from the Harris campaign to organizations linked to prominent supporters. He claimed without evidence that these payments were inaccurately described in spending records. And he falsely claimed that it is “COMPLETELY ILLEGAL” to pay for political endorsements, even though no federal law prohibits endorsement payments.
Trump concluded: “Kamala and all those who took money from the support, BROKE THE LAW. They should all be prosecuted! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Trump has made repeated calls for the prosecution of political opponents. His Saturday tweet about Harris and celebrity endorsements was an escalation from a post in May, when he said he would call for a “major investigation” into the topic, but did not explicitly mention prosecutions.
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