On Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday night, musician Kid Rock touted that half his band is “liberal, gay or Black,” adding that his group is “diverse,” not because of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts but because “they’re the best at what they do.”
Newsweek reached out to Rock via social media direct message on Saturday afternoon.
Why It Matters
Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, is one of the most prominent celebrity supporters of President Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
Since taking office in January, Trump has led efforts to end DEI initiatives in the federal government and has targeted the LGBTQ+ community, specifically people who are transgender. In April 2023, Rock shot up Bud Light cans after the company partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, sparking a major boycott of the beer company.
Supporters of DEI policies see them as a way to curb systemic racism and create more diverse spaces while critics see them as discriminatory against white people and favoring factors like race over an individual’s merit.
What To Know
Maher asked Rock in an interview on his late-night show on Friday, “Is he the last Democrat you liked?” referring to Trump’s new Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy Jr. ran as a Democrat in the 2024 election until October 2023 when he decided to run as an independent instead. He ended up dropping his bid altogether and endorsing Trump.
“I mean, my whole business is Democrats. I mean, so to speak. Not my whole business. I live in Nashville now, but that’s the world I’ve operated in for years and years. Half my band’s liberal, gay, or Black…we have one of the most diverse bands out there,” Rock said.
Rock manages multiple businesses including the Kid Rock Honky Tonk in Nashville.
The musician added: “Not because of any of this DEI s***. Just because they’re the best at what they do, and we all love each other and get along.”
When Maher brought up that he performed at Trump’s inauguration in January, Rock said he also played at former Democratic President Barack Obama‘s inauguration even though he didn’t vote for him.
“Everybody’s just got to calm the f*** down a little bit, you know what I mean?” Rock told Maher.
Kid Rock Says Super Bowl Halftime Show Was ‘DEI Blowing Up’
During the interview, Maher asked for Rock’s opinion on rapper Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX halftime show. Rock said, “It wasn’t my cup of tea, but I got to respect it.”
He added that Lamar, a 22 Grammy award-winning Black artist, being picked as the show’s headliner “was the epitome of DEI blowing up because the NFL was on this DEI and racism, all this stuff. They got Jay-Z in there booking this, and like Kendrick Lamar goes out there and basically turns DEI into an IED [improvised explosive device].”
Roc Nation, an entertainment company founded by rapper Jay-Z, who is also Black, produces the Super Bowl halftime show for the National Football League.
Rock continued to share his opinion of the show: “It’s like all Black people, or all people of color, speaking to his crowd in the hood, Black people. It was like the most exclusive thing ever,” but he added, “that’s awesome.”
Details About Trump’s Anti-DEI Efforts
During Trump’s first day in office, he signed an executive order titled, “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing.” In the order, he ordered the end of all “discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.”
The following day, the administration sent a memo to department heads in DEIA offices directing them to inform employees that they are being placed on paid leave due to the closure of the offices and warning them against attempting to “disguise” DEI programs in light of Trump’s ban.
What People Are Saying
Several civil rights groups wrote in a letter to Republican and Democratic congressional leaders on Wednesday, “We are deeply concerned about the recent executive actions by the Trump Administration that seek to undo decades of bipartisan support for civil and human rights.”
“These actions undermine equal opportunity, jeopardize America’s economic growth and global competitiveness, and threaten the foundational principles of our democracy,” read the letter, which was signed by groups like the National Council of Jewish Women, National Women’s Law Center, League of United Latin American Citizens and Asian Americans Advancing Justice.
Mike Gonzalez—a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank—said, per an Associated Press report from last month, that DEI initiatives are “dangerous, demeaning and immoral,” arguing that the programs violate the Civil Rights Act and equal protection under the law that the 14th Amendment enshrines.
What Happens Next
Several large-scale U.S. companies, including Meta, Walmart and Amazon, have also cut back on their DEI initiatives following the Trump administration’s DEI crackdown. Costco, meanwhile, is standing firm in its DEI initiatives.
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