Fat Joe faced backlash after he obtained a pair of Donald Trump’s “Never Surrender” sneakers. The Terror Squad leader tried to justify acquiring the Trump-branded shoes on Instagram Live.
“Me as a sneaker collector, I had to get my hands on the Trumps,” Fat Joe said. “Doesn’t matter … Listen, I have thousands and thousands and thousands [of] pairs of sneakers. When everybody flipped on Kanye, I went and bought the two most exclusive Kanyes ever.”
Fat Joe insisted he was not a Trump supporter despite owning the gold sneakers. The veteran rapper claimed he only wanted the shoes because they were a collector’s item.
“Once again, I’m not a Trumper,” he said. “I dislike Trump. I’m not voting for him. Not now, not never. But I’m a sneaker collector to the art, so I had to find these [shoes]. Now the mayor’s gonna call me. Everybody’s gonna call me and say, ‘You wilding out Joe’ … I’m a sneaker collector. I don’t know what none of these guys did. I collect sneakers. The rarer, the better.”
Fat Joe denied buying the sneakers. He hinted at receiving a free pair due to his well-known status as a sneaker collector.
“No, I didn’t pay for the sneakers,” he said. “Sorry, I didn’t pay for these sneakers. They knew I had to have them ‘cause I’m the biggest in the game.”
Trump launched his “Never Surrender” sneakers at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia on February 17. The shoes quickly sold out on his new website GetTrumpSneakers.com. The gold sneakers were priced at $399.
Only 1,000 pairs of Trump’s gold sneakers were released. The shoes were limited to three pairs per customer. Two other styles of sneakers remained available for purchase on Trump’s shoe-centric website. The former president also sold Trump-branded cologne and perfume on the website.
— media archive (@omgmediaarchive) February 27, 2024