A pageant queen crowned Miss Michigan then dethroned the next day for offensive social media posts about black people and Muslims has now joined an arm of President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.
Kathy Zhu made the announcement Thursday night on Twitter, writing that she is “so excited” to be named to the Women for Trump advisory board, which encourages women to vote for Trump in 2020.
Sharing the news, Team Trump praised the 20-year-old University of Michigan student as “a patriot who has continued to stand for American values despite being stripped of her crown.”
Last week, Zhu spoke out against the Miss World America competition’s leadership for revoking her title in light of her past statements.
According to an email Zhu shared signed by the organization’s director, Laurie DeJack, the disgraced winner’s “social media accounts contain offensive, insensitive and inappropriate content” that breached “MWA’s Rules and Conditions, specifically the contestant requirement of ‘being of good character and whose background is not likely to bring into disrepute Miss World America or any person associated with the organization.’”
Zhu responded by telling MWA to “review what you stand for and condemn,” accusing the organization of unfairly targeting her for “trying to make a difference by talking about subjects that no one dares to say.”
In a 2017 tweet, Zhu stated that “the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks,” telling another Twitter user to “Fix problems within your own community first before blaming others.”
In her other remark, posted on Facebook in 2018 but recently deleted, Zhu criticized a World Hijab Day event at her former school, the University of Central Florida, claiming the event constituted an attempt at oppression.
“There’s a ‘try a hijab on’ booth at my college campus,” she wrote. “So you’re telling me that it’s now just a fashion accessory and not a religious thing? Or are you just trying to get women used to being oppressed under Islam.”
During a CNN interview Monday, Zhu defended the posts, claiming that her tweet was taken out of context.
“Everything that I’ve posted was my statistics and opinions, and I think that we should be empowering women’s voices and not just stripping them of their title only because of their opinions,” she said.