Candace Owens’ MAGA Meltdown: The Hypocrisy, The Flip-Flop, And The Fallout

It looks like Candace Owens is back at it again, but this time, her target isn’t Black America. It’s her former political daddy, Donald J. Trump.

In a viral clip making the rounds on TikTok, Owens—who has spent the better part of the last seven years licking the MAGA boots clean—now claims she’s disappointed in the Trump administration; specifically, Trump’s attack on free speech, calling out his moves against Harvard University as “sad” and “un-American.”

“We cannot allow our rights to be infringed upon,” Owens says in the video. “And if you think it’s gonna stop with college campuses, you’re out of your mind.”

Now, let’s be clear. This sudden “awakening” isn’t about principle—it’s about positioning. Owens is pivoting not because her moral compass kicked in, but because her grift hit a glass ceiling. After leaving The Daily Wire (where calling out certain groups apparently comes with real consequences), she’s now scrambling to rebrand, hoping we’ll forget the years she spent defending the indefensible.

But we remember.

This is the same Candace Owens who blamed George Floyd for his own death. This is the same Candace Owens who labeled Black Lives Matter a “terrorist organization,” defended Harvey Weinstein, and proudly cosigned Trump’s racist birther conspiracies and his attack on Kamala Harris’ Blackness. She built her brand being the Black face for white supremacy, weaponizing anti-Black rhetoric to keep the checks rolling in.

The irony is, Owens wasn’t always this version of herself. 

Back in 2016, before she found out how lucrative being the conservative “Black friend” could be, she ran a site called Degree180 that mocked Trump, questioned his intellect (and anatomy), and spoke openly about the reality of systemic racism in America. But by 2017, Turning Point USA came calling with a job offer as their “urban engagement” director, which, let’s be honest, is code for we need a Black face to sell white nonsense to Black audiences.

From there, she became the CPAC darling who famously denied the existence of racism altogether. Imagine the audacity of a woman who once won a lawsuit against her high school for—you guessed it—racism, now standing on stage telling Black folks racism isn’t real.

But if you really want to understand Candace Owens, you have to understand the trauma play at work here. 

In the words of Monique Judge, Owens is still that teenage girl who once felt unsafe in her own community, sidelined by racist attacks from her white classmates, and now she’s spent her adult life trying to find acceptance in the very spaces that once weaponized that hatred against her.

And here we are, watching her latest act: Owens “breaking free” from the MAGA plantation, telling us this wasn’t what she “signed up for.” But make no mistake; this isn’t a stand for truth, it’s survival. Because her white audience may love a tap-dancing Sambo, but the second you critique any faction of white power, they remind you exactly where you stand.

But Owens’ identity crisis is only half the story here. The real headline is what her pivot reveals about the state of MAGA itself. 

Trump’s approval rating is now the lowest of any presidential candidate at this point in an election cycle, and Owens’ very public fallout with team Trump is just the latest crack in the foundation. From internal GOP infighting to mounting legal troubles and a growing number of conservatives questioning the authoritarian tactics of their own leader, MAGA is showing signs of fracture.

Candace Owens didn’t grow a conscience—she read the room. The Trump train is losing steam, and she’s looking for the next ride. But Black folks? We’ve seen this grift before.

And we ain’t buying it.

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