Days after Donald Trump said he would weigh a potential pardon of Sean “Diddy” Combs, rapper 50 Cent vowed to make the president “aware” of his thoughts about the music mogul, who is on trial for sex trafficking.
Asked about potentially granting clemency to the music mogul, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office this week: “Nobody’s asked, but I know people are thinking about it.” The president added: “First of all, I’d look at what’s happening, and I haven’t been watching it too closely…I haven’t seen him. I haven’t spoken to him in years.”
On Friday, 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson III, voiced his opinion on the matter. Alongside a clip of the president saying he’d consider pardoning Diddy, he wrote on Instagram: “He said some really bad things about Trump. it’s not ok. Im gonna reach out so he knows how I feel about this guy.”
The rapper doubled down on his position on Saturday. “Donald doesn’t take well to disrespect, and doesn’t forget who chooses to go against him. while working tirelessly to make America great again there is no room for distraction,” he wrote on the social media platform.
Reposting a headline of an article claiming 50 Cent “plans to nuke” Diddy’s chances of getting pardoned, the rapper retorted: “I didn’t say I would nuke anything, I simply said I would make sure Trump is aware.”
Their feud goes way back to 2006, when 50 Cent released “The Bomb,” a diss track claiming Diddy knew who killed Biggie Smalls. The music mogul has denied these allegations.
Diddy is on trial for five federal counts of sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy. Federal authorities arrested him in September 2024 and have alleged that the music mogul threatened, abused, and coerced victims “to fulfill his sexual desires” between 2004 and 2024. He has pleaded not guilty.
A witness named 50 Cent in the trial last week. Capricorn Clark, Diddy’s former employee, testified that she recalled overhearing her boss discuss firearms with 50 Cent’s manager Chris Lighty in an elevator after an MTV press event with 50 Cent. “I don’t like the back and forth. I like guns,” Clark recalled Diddy telling Lighty.
Trump has already pardoned reality TV stars, gang leaders, and anti-abortion activists in the first six months of his second term.
The president and the music mogul have known each other for decades. Trump mentioned Diddy in a 2012 episode of The Celebrity Apprentice, calling him a “good friend” and a “good guy.”
The music mogul also mentioned a friendship with Trump three years later. “Donald Trump is a friend of mine, and he works very hard,” Diddy told the Washington Post in 2015, months after Trump announced his 2016 presidential run from his golden escalator.
