Amber Rose Speaks to Former President Donald Trump and Delegates at the Republican National Convention

MILWAUKEE — Introduced onstage as “Amber Rose of South Philadelphia,” the Philadelphia-born model, author and television personality told delegates at the Republican National Convention Monday night that the MAGA world is where she belongs.

“I’m letting go of my fear of being judged, of being misunderstood, of being judged by the left, and I’m putting on my red hat, too,” Rose, who is also known for her former relationship with Kanye West, told the crowd.

Rose spoke at the end of the opening night of a four-day GOP convention in Milwaukee devoted to party business and celebration. Her remarks came shortly after former President Donald Trump made a theatrical surprise appearance at the convention by wearing white gauze over his ear, where a potential assassin shot him Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump entered the packed Fiserv Forum as Lee Greenwood sang “God Bless the USA” live and was greeted with thunderous applause before taking a seat in the VIP section to listen to Rose speak.

“Regardless of your political views, the best chance we have to give our children a better life is to elect Donald Trump president of the United States,” said Rose, a mother of two.

Monday’s theme was “Making America Rich Again,” and Rose argued that the economy had grown stronger under Trump’s leadership.

She was the first Pennsylvanian to address the crowd and the lone celebrity on a list of about a dozen speakers, including three black Republican members of Congress, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, and U.S. Reps. Byron Donalds and John James, who also appealed to black voters.

Polls show President Joe Biden’s support has fallen among black and Latino voters, while Trump has gained in both blocs. The trend is especially prevalent in huge cities like Philadelphia.

Trump’s targeted outreach to black voters in Philadelphia has yielded mixed results. In June, he held a rally at Temple University that was mostly white, though a larger concentration of black people sat in a section behind it, allowing their supporters to be perceptible on the live television stream. One of his surrogates, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, was criticized for comments that seemed to evoke nostalgia for the Jim Crow era at a cognac-and-cigar event in the city last month. And Trump drew scrutiny from black leaders in Philadelphia after comments he made about migrants taking “black jobs” during the first presidential debate.

The Biden campaign has highlighted those pitfalls and dismissed Trump’s appeal to the black community. “Black voters have the most to lose in this election,” Jasmine Harris, Biden-Harris 2024’s black media director, said in a statement Friday, calling Trump “a racist who promised to be a dictator from ‘day one’ — and fully intends to use the most powerful position in the world to make life harder for black America.”

Who is Amber Rose?

Rose was born and raised on Broad and Ellsworth Streets in South Philadelphia. Before moving to New York to pursue modeling, Rose said she felt she never fit in in Philly.

“I always felt bigger than the city. It wasn’t big enough for me” divided into Revolt The drink masters podcast in 2017and said she comes from an area where people are “not traditionally attractive.” This comment sparked a lot of criticism online before Rose apologized.

She gained importance in 2008 as a music video model. Then in 2009 she signed a contract with Ford Models and in 2016 she made her debut Amber Rose Performance on VH1. She published a how-to book How to be a bad bitch and organized a “SlutWalk” in Los Angelescombating issues related to women’s equality.”

She is also known for two high level unionsFirst with West and then with Wiz Khalifa, to whom she was married.

Rose criticized Trump in 2016, calling him “such an idiot” after being asked, in an interview for The Cut about a disparaging comment he made about then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. “He’s so weird. I really hope he doesn’t become president,” she said at the time.

This year, however, she supported Trump and spoke about her change of heart in an interview for Lara Trump’s podcast.

“I’m a single mother of two. I’m an American, I was born in Philadelphia. And to me, Donald Trump is the epitome of an alpha male,” Rose said. “He’s there to protect, to provide, to make sure the American people have a good economy, to protect us. I feel protected by Donald Trump.”

She also spoke about her family’s support for Trump in Philadelphia, pointing to the presence of her friends and family at his rally at the Liacouras Center last month.

“They can take pictures with him, so yeah, I talk to people in Philadelphia all the time,” Rose said. “Everybody I know is voting for Donald Trump. … Philadelphia needs Donald Trump.”

In her speech Monday, Rose said her father was the first person close to her to support Trump, and she initially challenged him. “I believed the leftist propaganda that Donald Trump is a racist,” Rose said.

She said she did her “research” by watching videos of Trump rallies and talking to his supporters.

“And then it hit me,” she said. “These are my people. This is my place.”

Article co-authored by Fallon Roth.