The Time When Donald Trump ‘Demanded a 'Straight-Up Quid Pro Quo’ From Kim Kardashian

During Donald Trump's presidency, Kim Kardashian emerged as an unlikely criminal justice reform advocate. The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star successfully lobbied former President Trump to commute the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson in the year 2018. However, according to the book Tired of Winning by Jonathan Karl, Trump later demanded a "straight-up quid pro quo" from Kardashian in exchange for further clemency actions.

The revelations come from Tired of Winning by ABC News reporter Karl. According to News Week, Trump demanded Kardashian leverage her celebrity ties to get famous football players of that time to visit him at the White House in exchange for additional commutations she was requesting in his final days in office. Karl cites a source saying Trump "listened to her requests and demanded a straight-up quid pro quo. He would grant the commutations, he told Kardashian, if she leveraged her celebrity connections to get football stars who were friends of hers to come visit him at the White House."

Remarkably, Karl claims Kardashian actually tried really hard to meet Trump's demand, "seeing it as a small price to pay to get justice for people she believed were serving unjust sentences." However, the football players Kardashian approached all declined the invitation. For Kardashian's part, she seemed willing to meet Trump's quid pro quo demand for a White House visit, believing it was a worthwhile tradeoff to help those unjustly incarcerated.

Trump had become too politically radioactive by the end for even his celebrity friends to entertain. As Karl bluntly states, "Trump had become too toxic. In the final two weeks of his presidency, nobody wanted to be anywhere near him." After Trump's defeat, Kardashian reached out about his endorsement on further clemency pleas. But he was dismissive and hung up on her. "Hell no, the former president told her. He wouldn't do it," Karl wrote. "'You voted for Biden and now you come asking me for a favor?' Trump told her," as per The Hill. 

A Trump spokesperson slammed the book bluntly by saying, "disgraceful and talentless John Carl [sic] is a back-bencher who could never get his own show for obvious reasons. Excerpts previously released from this ‘book’ have already been thoroughly debunked. This filth either belongs in the discount bargain bin in the fiction section of the bookstore or should be repurposed as toilet paper." as per Deadline. While Kardashian never publicly endorsed a candidate in 2020, she posted a photo of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris with three blue heart emojis after their victory was called, signaling her preferred outcome. In 2018, after her White House visit led to Johnson's commutation, Kardashian said "I have nothing bad to say about the president. He has done something amazing."