Donald Trump allies who got the president to call for rapper A$AP Rocky get released from Swedish prison are outraged that the entertainer has not thanked the president.
One called the rapper and his entourage ‘ungrateful motherf****rs’ for not picking up the phone to thank them, Yahoo News reported.
Ohio Pastor Darrell Scott, one of Trump’s most high-profile African-American surrogates, and Kareem Lanier, co-chair of the Urban Revitalization Coalition, which focuses on promoting elements of the Trump agenda to the black community, said their only stipulation for helping get A$AP Rocky out of Swedish prison was to get a thank you from the rapper when he returned to the U.S.
The rapper was held in jail in Sweden to wait for trial on assault charges, which became the center of a near international incident when Trump called for him to be freed and said he would vouch that he was not a flight list.
Sweden’s prime minister told Trump he could not intervene in the judicial process; in the end A$AP Rocky was freed between the trial ending and the verdict being delivered, then found guilty of assault and not sentenced to prison time.
But his release and return to the U.S. have not ended well for those who helped put his case on the Resolute Desk – and Trump’s twitter feed.
Rapper’s delight: A$AP Rocky and the two men accused of assault in Sweden in June were allowed to walk free on August 2. The rapper sat beside his lawyer Martin Persson – part of a legal teamand entourage who Trump’s allies called ‘ungrateful motherf*****s’
Kareem Lanier (left), who helped arrange the Trump intervention called A$AP Rocky’s team ‘ungrateful motherf*****s’ for failing to thank them and the president. Ohio Pastor Darrell Scott, one of Trump’s most high-profile African-American surrogates, put Trump and Jared Kushner in contact with Hassan Muhammad, who calls himself the ‘fixer’ in the entertainment industry
That went well: How Donald Trump’s intervention in the case played out as the Swedish prime minister told him he could not intervene in the country’s criminal justice system
Happy ending: Donald Trump greeted the rapper’s release with a pun-filled tweet
‘The White House didn’t ask for anything,’ Scott said, according to Yahoo News. ‘There were no conditions attached, but my condition and Kareem’s condition was that all I’m asking for you guys to do is say thank you.’
Hassan Muhammad, who calls himself a ‘fixer’ for entertainment industry figures, reached out to some of Donald Trump’s African-American allies earlier this summer to ask them to push for Rocky’s release.
The duo said they were promised a ‘thank you,’ but insist they have still not received any expression of gratitude to them or the president, even though Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, returned back to the U.S. at the beginning of this month.
The rapper did, however, thank his fans and describe the experience as ‘humbling.’
‘Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all my fans, friends and anyone across the globe who supported me during these last few weeks,’ the rapper wrote on his Instagram. ‘I can’t begin to describe how grateful I am for all of you.’
Rocky was detained by Swedish authorities following a June 30 incident where he was accused of assault, and after his trail Swedish prosecutors said Rocky, and his co-accused friends David Rispers Jr. and Bladimir Corniel, should receive six months in jail.
Muhammad told Lanier and Scott about the case and put them in contact with Rocky’s manager, John Ehmann.
Lanier said Ehmann pleaded that the rapper needed presidential intervention, and said Rocky would be ‘screwed’ of the White House didn’t reach out to Swedish government.
Ehmann also told the men, according to Kanier, that he and Rocky would thank anyone able to get him out of Swedish prison, even if that person was a ‘serial killer.’
Scott and Lanier reached out to Trump’s son-in-law and Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, who became their main point of contact in the West Wing. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ended up taking the lead on getting Rocky released.
Trump was briefed on the situation when he met with Lanier and Scott during a visit to Cleveland, Ohio on July 12.
A week later, the president brought up the situation when speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, making his first suggestion he was going to help get Rocky out of Sweden.
Is that it? Donald Trump’s allies were left angry that they got no more thanks than these Instagram posts – which mentioned nothing about the White House.
Rocky did not thank Trump for lobbying on his behalf, but upon return to the U.S. thanked his ‘fans, friends and anyone across the glove who supported me during these last few weeks’
‘Many, many members of the African-American community have called me, friends of mine, and said, ‘Could you help?’ Trump said. ‘So I personally don’t know A$AP Rocky, but I can tell you he has a lot of support from the African-American community in this country.’
While Pompeo and Kushner and Scott and Lanier worked behind the scenes to get the entertainer and his two friends released from prison in Europe, Trump took to Twitter the bring more public attention to the situation.
‘Just had a very good call with @SwedishPM Stefan Löfven who assured me that American citizen A$AP Rocky will be treated fairly,’ Trump tweeted July 20. ‘Likewise, I assured him that A$AP was not a flight risk and offered to personally vouch for his bail, or an alternative.’
Rocky was released from Swedish detention on August 2.
‘A$AP Rocky released from prison and on his way home to the United States from Sweden. It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!’ Trump tweeted, making puns out of the rappers stage name.
Scott and Lanier say an attorney for Rocky, Damien Granderson, was acting too ‘nonchalant’ over news that Trump was lobbying on his client’s behalf, and Lanier admitted that he ‘snapped’ at Granderson.
‘I was like, man, you ungrateful motherf****rs, you. I can’t believe you,’ he recalled saying to the attorney. ‘We didn’t ask you guys for nothing other than for you guys to be grateful. We just want you guys to be appreciative and say thank you.’