Trump's fury at Snoop Dogg set off 'chaos' in final hours of his presidency: report

Donald Trump was consumed by anger toward Snoop Dogg in the final days of his presidency, according to numerous sources.

The rapper and actor worked behind the scenes in late 2020 and early 2021 seeking executive clemency for his friend and Death Row Records co-founder Michael “Harry-O” Harris and other federal prisoners, but Trump reportedly couldn't get over previous insults the celebrity had hurled at him earlier in his presidency.

“Well, f--k him,” Trump snapped about Snoop Dogg on Jan. 18, 2021, according to a former administration official and another person who overheard him and spoke to Rolling Stone.

His anger at Snoop Dogg, whose given name is Calvin Broadus, set off a frenzied effort by White House staffers and outside allies to convince Trump that he was no longer angry at him, which lasted until almost the final minute of his presidency, according to interviews with former administration and campaign officials, sources close to the ex-president and activists who worked on the project.

“Snoop brought this case to me, and I brought Alice Johnson, [who was pardoned by Trump], on board to help it with me, and she brought it to the West Wing,” activist Weldon Angelos, a former music producer also pardoned by Trump, told The Daily Beast at the time. “In the past, the president has given her the ability to select cases, and she doesn’t get [clemency for] all of them… But with Mr. Harris, she is not taking no for an answer.”

Johnson, who had been serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug crime, was pardoned by Trump thanks to efforts by reality TV star Kim Kardashian.

“The president knows about it," Johnson said at the time. "I’ve spoken with Ivanka [Trump] and I’ve spoken with Jared [Kushner], and I’ve been told that President Trump is aware of the case and has been reviewing it. I’ve spoken to [White House chief of staff] Mark Meadows about it, and he said he’d take a look at it.”

But individuals close to Trump and some administration officials reminded him that Snoop Dogg had called him a "motherf------ racist," along with his supporters and rapper Kanye West, and recorded a music video where he aimed a toy gun at a clown who looked like Trump. A suddenly enraged president told aides to reject Harris' clemency to punish Snoop Dogg.

“It was chaos,” said a former White House official.

Activists scrambled to call in favors and contact senior aides and Trump family members in hopes of changing the outgoing president's mind, saying that Snoop Dogg had warmed to him due to other pardons, and while the rapper didn't want to grovel for his forgiveness, Angelos remembered some unreleased documentary footage of Snoop saying complimentary things about him.

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“I was aware that the [Daily Beast] article caused a problem for Mr. Harris’ clemency petition, and I was asked by someone close to the White House to send a clip of a previously recorded message from Snoop where he commended Trump’s efforts on criminal justice reform,” Angelos told Rolling Stone. “The campaign to free Harry-O was recorded for documentary purposes.”

The footage made it to the White House and was shown to Trump, who said he appreciated the comments and instructed his advisers to put Harris' name back on the pardon list.

Harris learned the evening of Jan. 19, 2021, with just hours to go in Trump's presidency, that he would soon be released from prison.