The president of the United States tweeted at Snoop Dogg on Wednesday morning to let the rapper know he was not pleased about his new music video. The controversial video for "Lavender," which dropped last weekend, depicts Snoop Dogg pointing a fake gun at a clown named "Ronald Klump" who bears a striking resemblance to President Trump. When Snoop Dogg pulls the trigger, a flag bearing the word "bang" pops out of the gun's barrel.
Trump suggested Wednesday that if Snoop Dogg, "failing career and all," had instead depicted former President Barack Obama in the video, he'd be going to prison:
Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen said he was "shocked" by the "totally disgraceful" video and said that "Snoop owes the president an apology." Both Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have also expressed their outrage over the music video. Rubio warned that if "the wrong person sees that and gets the wrong idea, you can have a real problem." Cruz, who Pitchfork noted has not seen the video, said it's "in poor taste to be making fun of murdering someone, and in particular assassinating the president."
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Snoop Dogg said he was just "trying to fill in a void" with the controversial video. "[N]obody's dealing with the real issue with this f---ing clown as president, and the sh-t that we dealing with out here," he said, "so I wanted to take time out to push pause on a party record and make one of these records for the time being."
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