At least one liberal celebrity is willing to seek out common ground with the Trump administration — and her efforts appear to be paying off.
The other half of Kanye West’s ultra-famous marriage has reportedly been busy lobbying the White House on behalf of a nonviolent drug offender she believes to be deserving of a presidential pardon. Mic reported this week that Kim Kardashian West has had multiple phone calls with Jared Kushner about the plight of Alice Marie Johnson “over the course of the past several months,” and that those calls have “picked up in intensity over the last several days.”
Johnson has been serving a life sentence without parole since 1996, when she was convicted for drug conspiracy and money laundering.
According to Mic’s story, White House lawyers have actually reviewed Johnson’s case. A report in TMZ further claims Kardashian West has been in contact with Ivanka Trump as well, and has even involved her own attorney in the process.
Kardashian West is no Trump supporter (a point she emphasized recently in light of her husband’s MAGA spree), and joined basically her entire industry in endorsing Hillary Clinton two years ago.
Regardless of whether her efforts are ultimately successful, and regardless of whether you agree that Johnson is deserving of a pardon, Kardashian West is quietly proving a point to her famous peers, some of whom have refused to visit the Trump White House or engage with the administration at all.
If you look for common ground and negotiate in good faith, progress can usually be made. And you don’t even have to enable or endorse the White House to make it.
On top of all that, this is not a traditional Republican administration, and targeting advocacy efforts at the right people could go a long way for liberal celebrities with pet causes to pursue. In many cases, they would probably find that making a quiet effort actually pays off more than taking a sanctimonious stand.
