Kim Kardashian’s career has been one big guessing game. Since founding the extremely successful shapewear company Skims in 2019, the reality-star-turned-lifestyle-influencer has embarked on a number of surprising if not totally puzzling ventures, from trying to become a lawyer to starring in a poorly rated season of American Horror Story to filming an eerie “Santa Baby” music video. Thanks to her recent Instagram activity, though, her followers have already started to suspect her next move.
The theory is that Kardashian is making a rightward turn, cozying up to those currently in power as she continues to grow her economic empire and align herself with the world’s most powerful business leaders. While not a foregone conclusion, it’s all in the tea leaves. Let’s back up.
Earlier this month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a cheery photo of himself on Instagram wearing a hoodie that read “Kim is my lawyer” with the caption “My only appropriate hoodie.” Kardashian commented with “Hahaha I love it!!!” before sharing the selfie on her Instagram Stories.
It still isn’t clear what inspired Zuckerberg’s shoutout. Did family momager Kris Jenner, who’s tagged in the caption, send Zuckerberg the hoodie? Was this some sort of poorly executed promotion for Kardashian’s upcoming Ryan Murphy legal drama All’s Fair? Will Kardashian, not actually a member of the bar, be representing Zuckerberg in his next lawsuit?
Just a few years ago, the queen of selfies having a virtual giggle with a fellow billionaire like Zuckerberg wouldn’t have raised many eyebrows. However, Zuckerberg has spent the past year publicly ingratiating himself to President Donald Trump: altering Facebook’s speech policies in his favor, donating to his inauguration fund, and attending the ceremony in January.
Along with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Zuckerberg has been labeled a member of the “broligarchy,” a moniker for several tech billionaires trying to curry favor with the Trump administration with the hopes of influencing deregulation policies or attaining government power. Musk has already torn through the federal workforce with his Department of Government Efficiency.
More damning, though, has been Kardashian’s public ties with Musk, adding extra suspicion to her recent interaction with Zuckerberg. Last year, she repeatedly shilled for Musk, who’s had a long, storied friendship with her ex-husband Kanye West. In addition to being spotted around Los Angeles in her Tesla Cybertruck, she posted the company’s Optimus Bot on X less than two weeks after the presidential election, as well as staging a bizarre, sexy photoshoot with the android on Instagram. (In a strange effort to stave off backlash, she clarified that she wasn’t paid to post the robot.)
She’s even broadcast her affinity for members of the Trump family. In addition to her well-documented friendship with Ivanka Trump, she shared a caption-less photo of first lady Melania Trump on her Instagram Stories the day of the inauguration. All these pointedly apolitical but public interactions with Trump’s family and associates have Kardashian’s followers wondering if she’s preparing to go all in on the president himself.
In contrast to Trump’s first term, it’s become more common to see popular celebrities interact with the Trump administration or, at the very least, withhold critical opinions. A slew of rappers, including the previously anti-Trump Snoop Dogg, performed at one of Trump’s inaguruation galas. When asked about Trump attending the Super Bowl this month, Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce had nothing but polite words to offer.
Locating the Kardashian-Jenner clan’s politics has always been a confusing, maybe even thankless task. Any mention of social issues or electoral politics has felt mostly inorganic coming from members of the privileged family, one of whom unabashedly claimed that they don’t even read the news. The rest have spent the better part of their careers offending various demographics online.
Nevertheless, the Calabasas influencers rose to power on the internet in the 2010s, around the same time that social movements like Black Lives Matter and Me Too were resounding online and demanding the engagement of celebrities. The family’s proximity to Black culture, whether through their romantic partners or their affinity for Black beauty trends, also put them in the position of being pressured to speak on racial issues and called out when they didn’t. Arguably, these were opinions we didn’t actually need to hear.
For the most part, Kardashian has associated herself with left-leaning politics, using her platforms to support support Black Lives Matter, calling for stricter gun laws, and criticizing the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. She also supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
Notably, she’s the only family member to fold social justice work into her brand, specifically around criminal justice reform. Beginning in 2018, she successfully advocated for the release of Alice Marie Johnson and Chris Young from prison. She also helped persuade the Trump administration to sign the First Step Act, aimed at changing sentencing laws and decreasing prison populations. Since then, she’s advocated for the clemency of multiple prisoners on death row and other incarcerated people, including the Menendez brothers.
As witnessed by her prison-reform efforts, she hasn’t been afraid to do direct business with Trump to advance her own causes. As much good as Kardashian may have done for the pardoned inmates, the clemency deal also just happened to redirect attention from her ex-husband’s comments about slavery and bring some goodwill to the Kardashian brand.
The world’s most famous business leaders are also making what feels like a unified move to the right — and being regarded as a serious player in the business world has long been a concern for Kardashian. On her Hulu reality show The Kardashians, she’s discussed her obsession with proving herself as a businessperson and her desire to be seen as a corporate disruptor on the level of a Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs.
In an episode of season 2, Kardashian says: “All of the big banks and VCs — everyone says, ‘Apple, Nike, Skims.’ We’re in that conversation, and it just makes me really proud.”
For a high-powered billionaire like Kardashian, it is perhaps only a matter of time before she kisses the ring, much the way her techier brethren have.
It’s not evident that Kardashian personally aligns with the views of MAGA. Her attendance at a Black business gala earlier this month suggests that she’s probably not in support of Trump’s sweeping anti-DEI agenda. Her own businesses have relied on the support and compliance of Black and nonwhite celebrities and models, who are often featured in her Skims and KKW beauty campaigns. Plus, it arguably still wouldn’t be the smartest move for a reality star trying to earn their stripes in Hollywood to start donning a red cap.
Whatever Kardashian’s intentions, her attempts to appeal to both sides of the aisle have already been undermined. The same day that Kardashian posted a photo of Melania Trump’s inauguration outfit on Instagram, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety,” a direct blow to the prison reform efforts she’s been fighting for for years.
