Jennifer Hudson Sang for the DNC, But Trump Took In Her Family After Horrible 2008 Tragedy
Her sense of gratitude isn’t as great as her voice.
When Oscar-winning actress and singer Jennifer Hudson took the stage for the Democratic National Convention’s all-virtual show on Wednesday, she was part of a lineup of celebrities Democrats no doubt hoped would distract from the destructive power of their party’s socialist platform.
But what few would guess from Hudson’s appearance during the three-day Democratic orgy of bashing President Donald Trump is that Hudson herself had been the beneficiary of the president’s largesse back when he was still just a wealthy private citizen with a hand in show business.
According to a “Today” show report from November 2008, Hudson and some of her family members were guests at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago, allowed to stay without charge in the aftermath of the brutal killings of three family members.
During a tragic killing on Oct. 24, 2008, Hudson’s mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and Hudson’s brother, Jason Hudson, 29, were shot to death in Donerson’s Chicago home, according to an ABC report from the suspect’s trial. The singer’s nephew, 7-year-old Julian King, was kidnapped and later killed.
Four years later, William Balfour, the estranged husband of Hudson’s sister, Julia Hudson, was found guilty of the killings, which authorities said were committed in a jealous rage.
Balfour was sentenced to life in prison, according to a “Today” show report from July 2012.
But all of that was far in the future when Trump took Hudson in following the bloodshed.
“She’s a great girl and we’re protecting them well,” Trump told People for a Nov. 11, 2008, story. “They are very safe.”
That was back when Trump was still a favorite of the glitterati and the paparazzi who cover them.
(“Donald Trump doesn’t just have the golden touch for business – he also has a heart of gold,” People gushed. Try to find any entertainment press talking like that about the president today.)
Now, though, after defeating Hollywood favorite Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, implementing a tax-cutting agenda that rejuvenated the American economy, ditching the sham Paris Agreement on climate change and appointing two conservative justices to the Supreme Court, Trump has long fallen out of favor with the Beautiful People.
And at least one Beautiful Person – a singer by the name of Jennifer Hudson – clearly had no compunction about gracing an online gathering of the president’s political enemies with her considerable talent for song.
Funny how not a word of this got mentioned in an introduction to Hudson’s barnburner of a performance — almost like Democrats didn’t want anyone to know about it as she wowed a national audience with a rendition of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” at Chicago’s Cultural Center.
Jennifer Hudson closes out Wednesday night’s #DemConvention. pic.twitter.com/rMGt4PAC2O
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) August 20, 2020
Whatever the merits of Hudson’s performance, though, the rank display of ingratitude did not go down well in some quarters.
Singer Joy Villa, one of the few vocal Trump supporters in the entertainment world, took to Twitter to voice her displeasure.
So sad Jennifer has such a short memory: Trump takes in Jennifer Hudson and family. @realDonaldTrump sure is a bad racist…?? https://t.co/kPWrPptBJd
— Joy Villa (@Joy_Villa) August 20, 2020
He knows what he did for her. His actions are all that matter. She unfortunately, has forgotten.
— Mixon (@Mixon510) August 20, 2020
Jennifer Hudson may be singing at the #DemConvention but when her family was brutally murdered in the streets of Chicago, it was @realDonaldTrump who reached out and allowed the singer and her family to stay at his hotel while they mournedhttps://t.co/t0BYR3H9lF
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) August 20, 2020
Liberals being liberals, of course, there was a discouraging number of commenters who seemed to think that whatever good the Trump of 2008 had done, the Trump of 2015-20 has destroyed.
Some even accused Trump of hyping his own generosity for his own good press.
Now, it’s a free country, of course. And Jennifer Hudson, like every American, is free to support whomever she wants for the presidency.
She can even use that great singing voice to do it in a way few others can.
But if the public story of Trump’s generosity in the wake of a family tragedy is true, a little bit of gratitude would go a long way, too.
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