New York Magazine is under fire for cutting the black people out of a photo of people at an inauguration party for President Donald Trump in order to portray the soirée as “cruel” and “white.”
The magazine featured the photograph on the front cover of its Jan. 27 edition for a story titled “The Cruel Kids’ Table,” in which author Brock Colyar recounted a Jan. 20 inauguration party at Sax in Washington, D.C.
“Almost everyone is white,” Colyar wrote. “The men look like Pete Hegseth, in bow ties and black suits, with clean-shaven faces. The women are almost all out of their league.”
Colyar — who identifies as “they” — failed to note that the party was hosted by 22-year-old CJ Pearson — a black conservative who became one of Trump’s most vocal supporters at the age of 14.
“This is insane,” Pearson wrote in a response to the story on X. “I hosted this event and NY Mag intentionally left me out of their story because it would have undermined their narrative that MAGA is some racist cult. They also didn’t include the fact that [rapper] WakaFlocka and [boxer] @Gervontaa [Davis] were also there.”
Rob Smith — another prominent black conservative — wrote: “I was at this party as were MANY other Conservative media influencers who are Black, Latino, Asian, etc. NY Mag used a whites only photo to push the media narrative that diverse Republicans don’t exist and weren’t welcome. You don’t hate the media enough.”
Chris Barnard echoed the sentiment: “New York Magazine literally cropped all the black people out of this cover photo and then complained that “‘the entire room is white.'”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) also weighed in, calling it “ridiculous.”
The event in question, the Power 30 Awards, aimed to honor influencers who support Donald Trump. Politico noted that a sampling of the attendees included Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX), Alex Bruesewitz, Isabel Brown, Riley Gaines, Danielle Franz, Raquel Debono, Scott Presler, Greg Price, and Vanessa Santos. Sponsors of the event included TikTok, the Daily Signal, the American Conservation Coalition, and Kalshi.
New York Magazine did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the story.
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