“I do not tell people who to vote for” — Nelly doubles down on his performance at Donald Trump inauguration event

Nelly has once again defended his performance at Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony, which took place on January 20, 2025. Notably, the rapper clarified that he had avoided endorsing presidential candidates over the years, as he took to the comments section of one of The Shade Room’s Instagram posts on Saturday, June 28, to react to the criticism aimed at the performance.

The Shade Room also shared glimpses of Nelly’s comment through their X (formerly Twitter) account on Sunday, June 29, where the artist was spotted expressing his love for the country. The singer and actor wrote:

“I reiterate, I did not campaign for anyone. I do not tell people who to vote for. I respect and love our country from top to bottom good and bad… and I am very aware that it’s a lot of things in this country that we need to work on the right is too far right and the left is too far left.”

Born Cornell Iral Haynes Jr., he further wrote that it would be an honor for him if he were contacted by the president's office for any reason, irrespective of who the president was. The Snipes star mentioned that he won’t care about money or race in such situations.

Well-known for his appearance on season 29 of Dancing with the Stars, Nelly seemingly referred to those who were criticizing him and Snoop Dogg, as he stated:

“Nothing to do with race but if you wanna make it about race, then let’s goooooooooooooo I find it very interesting. That’s so many of you would dump on the two black men that’s married to black women that has black children because the “ “ woman of color with the white husband and white kids. Didn’t win..!!”

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Nelly said that he and Snoop Dogg have made a lot of contributions to his community

Nelly and Snoop Dogg at the 2013 BET Awards (Image via Getty)

The Just a Dream singer has been facing criticism ever since he performed at Donald Trump’s second inauguration ceremony earlier this year. While he clarified that he does not campaign for any presidential candidate, Nelly claimed that he had done a lot of things for the Black community over the last 20 years, along with fellow rapper Snoop Dogg.

The Dillemma singer referred to the help that he and Snoop provided throughout their career, and stated:

“From the black families that we employ to the black children that we help every day and all year through our nonprofits, whether we’re sending kids to schools on scholarships to HBCU or helping young black boys in la “gang central” with his junior football programs which many players have went on to go to the NFL and live their dreams.”

He further wrote that he and Snoop were also the fathers of “black children,” adding that it should have been an inspiration to a lot of people. Nelly also opened up on why people might have an issue with the same, as he seemingly referred to Kamala Harris, who also participated in the presidential election last year. He wrote:

“Some of y’all have a problem with because the “prosecutor who has probably locked up more black men that we’ve helped woman of color with the white husband and white kids. Did not win the election.”

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In other news, while Nelly has not announced a new album for almost four years, he recently appeared on the Peacock documentary series, Nelly & Ashanti: We Belong Together, which premiered on June 26, 2025.

Edited by Ankita Barat