Joe Biden has a problem with stars

Robert De Niro and Julia Roberts are riding for Joe Biden. Kid Rock and Jon Voight? All about Donald Trump. Otherwise? Unease reigns. Especially on the side of the president, mired in unpopularity which slows down spontaneous support. Feeling “betrayed,” singer Cardi B has already said she won’t “fuck with either of them.” We tried to sort it out.

Saturday evening, the president-candidate brought out his finest tuxedo and his most frank support, in the hope of swelling his war chest for his campaign. In Los Angeles, Barack Obama, Julia Roberts, George Clooney and Barbra Streisand took turns on stage to dress Joe Biden in a broad veil of praise, between glitter and political warnings against the “Donald Trump danger”.

In 2024, Joe Biden can still count on prestigious guests, but above all long-standing sponsors. Like Robert De Niro who, two weeks ago, organized a wild press conference in front of the Manhattan court, to call Trump a “clown”. Entertainment giants, historically Democrats, who are no longer twenty years old and therefore… nothing much left to prove or lose.

Since the prospect of a final Biden-Trump rematch no longer excites anyone in the United States, the president is not unanimous in the pool of celebrities formerly on his side either. Recently, in Rolling StoneCardi B admitted feeling “layers and layers of disappointment” in the face of the Biden government’s record, while describing Trump’s presidency as “a major threat.”

To drive the point home, the rapper says she doesn’t like the idea that the 81-year-old candidate puts on “a superhero cape”, to only help countries that will be “useful and indebted to him later”.

Same strong disappointment from actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who will not vote for either Biden or Trump in 2024: “Am I happy with the state of America right now? Well that answer is no. Do I believe we are going to get better? I believe in it, I’m an optimistic guy. But this division of the country is catastrophic,” he told Fox News, At the beginning of April. “The Rock” and Cardi B were vocal allies in 2020, when it came to cutting off Donald Trump.

And they are not the only ones to turn around. Director Oliver Stone (Born Killers, Wall Street…) and actor Michael Rapaport (the cop who dates Phoebe in Friends) have already announced that they would no longer offer their vote to the outgoing president, after having voted for him in 2020. Rapaport, the day after the announcement of a new promise of arms to Israel, was extremely in anger, to the point of considering changing sides.

Steven Spielberg financially (and very discreetly) supports the Democratic campaign, as do the couple Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, who organized a fundraiser for Biden last May. Other historic allies are already in the starting blocks, like Eva Longoria, ready to pound the pavement in her favor in Arizona, a “swing state”, just to motivate the Latino electorate.

As for the others, we will probably have to wait until the fall to know if they will dare to come out of the woods. To dare? Yes. In a country so divided and on edge, revealing voting instructions can now prove risky.

Take Mariah Carey, to name just one. In December 2023, she set foot on the floor of the White House with her kids, to decorate the presidential tree. In return, Madame Noël received a torrent of insults on social networks, for having messed with “the one who contributes to the genocide in Gaza”. The conflict in the Middle East is the major obstacle to the lack of spontaneous support among younger personalities. An electorate that is nevertheless crucial for the Democrat.

If Zendaya has been singled out for her “silence” on Gaza, Billie Eilish is campaigning “for a ceasefire”. As much happy few that the Democratic candidate’s team would dream of having at its side to strengthen the communication of a horse lacking popularity. The least we can say is that it is not won.

While Taylor Swift had clearly called for voting for Biden in 2020, her outspoken support in 2024 is still awaited. On the other hand, among the French Swifties, we did not wait for the boss’s opinion on Jordan Bardella to publicly support the New Popular Front, less than two weeks before the legislative elections caused by Macron and the success of the extreme right to the Europeans.

Further proof that it is perhaps still too early for baby stars to worry about the fate of their country?

Trump? It’s easier

On the other side of the duel, the VIP support festival is less glamorous, less feminine, but much more uninhibited. Even if it is very complicated to know why things are working for Donald Trump, between provocation and sincere activism, the males have their foot on the accelerator.

From the singer Kid Rock, to the actor Jon Voight, via Jake and Logan Paul, the drag queen Lady MAGA and of course Kanye West, we want Make America Great Again aloud.

Of course, between Trump and the cinema hill, love-hate has long prevailed. If his appearances in films and reality TV success The Apprentice have proven that he dreamed of being part of this big family, the billionaire also considers that it is the benchmark of “wokism”. A war which crystallized eight years ago, around his star on Hollywood Boulevard.

Destroyed in 2016, then modified, vandalized or mocked over the course of his mandate, this star was questioned by the Hollywood council in 2018, voting unanimously for its removal. While in 2023, a petition demanded the same thing, the city of Los Angeles does not yet know how to properly address the problem.

If Donald Trump seems to be annoyed by the support of Taylor Swift, “America’s daughter”, “the former queen of country”, with progressive ideas, he nevertheless knows that he must now hunt elsewhere than in the mainstream. This is why not a week goes by without the Republican candidate appearing with far-right provocateurs and disgraced ex-stars, whether at the microphone of powerful podcasts or around a UFC ring.

Finally, there are the “neither more nor less on the contrary”, whose real voting intentions in 2024 are unknown. If Chuck Norris compares Trump to Viktor Orbán, of whom he calls himself “the biggest fan”, Jean-Claude Van Damme has not yet announced that he wants to take him down with his bare hands. Remember in 2017, when the Belgian actor gave him these strange laurels:

For his part, Joe Biden still has work to do until November, if he wants to add sincere and credible glitter to his campaign. On this subject, we are still waiting for a sign from JLo, Tom Hanks or DiCaprio.

See you in September?