Music

Clay Aiken Regrets Defending Trump

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By Dianne Gebauer

Clay Aiken has some Trumpgrets to air out. 

As Page Six reported, the former American Idol runner-up took to Twitter on Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017 to clarify his position on President Donald Trump. "Remember all those times I defended @realDonaldTrump and believed he was not actually racist?" he wrote. "Well...I am a f*****g dumb**s. #imsorry."

Aiken's confession came only a few hours after Trump blamed "both sides" for the horrific violence that occurred at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. over the weekend.

As the website documented, this tweet marks a drastic shift in tone. Aiken, who came in second on Celebrity Apprentice in 2012, first came to Trump's defense in an appearance on Fox Business in 2016, when he claimed that the then-candidate was neither "fascist" nor "racist." At the time, the "Invisible" singer rather likened him to the "uncle who gets drunk at the wedding and embarrasses you....You still love him, but you'd wish he shut up."

More recently, in July 2017, the 38-year-old singer-turned-politician argued that Trump is really a "nice guy," despite the fact that he emphatically disagrees with the president's politics.

But after recent events, Aiken seems to be a Trump apologist no more. And following intense reactions to his initial tweet, the former special education teacher was forced to clarify where his true political leanings lie. As he wrote to one user, "My party is the Democrats. I didn't vote for the idiot. Never ever implied that I did or would. Was VERY vocal about not voting for him."

"I've always thought he would be a dumpster fire as a president," he responded to another. "And I was right about that. I just didn't think he was racist. #wrong."

Well, Aiken has never been one to mince words.

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