After more than a decade of promoting materialism and promiscuity, Kim Kardashian West promoted some more positive behavior for her young fans on Wednesday.
Reportedly so moved by Alice Marie Johnson’s story, the reality star spent months quietly working to educate herself on prison reform, looking for ways to help the 62-year-old inmate. Those efforts culminated in a trip to the White House on Wednesday, where Kardashian West met with President Trump to discuss the case. She had previously advocated on Johnson’s behalf in conversations with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Johnson, for her part, reacted to news of the summit with praise for Kardashian West and the Kushner duo.
Kardashian West, it should be noted, is a liberal Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton back in 2016. Even in the midst of her husband’s recent MAGA spree, she made sure to distance herself from the president. But in a time where other public figures prioritize taking public stands over making progress for their causes, sending a message that cooperation is not worth pursuing, Kardashian West’s decision to actually negotiate in good faith with the most reviled person among her Hollywood peers was bold. And it teaches her young fans a good lesson when other celebrities are suggesting that it’s better to ignore people with whom you share political differences than to set those differences aside and work towards progress.
It’s probably unfair to reduce Kim K.’s whirlwind 11 years in the spotlight to only her negative contributions, and when it comes to entrepreneurship, faith, and family she’s actually had some flashes of decency since she first rocketed to fame in the waning days of the Bush administration. She’s also given us one of the greatest reality television moments in the genre’s short history.
But for how badly it was needed at a time when people are more and more inclined to tune the other side out, this may be her best moment yet.
