TLC’s Rozonda Thomas is walking back donations to Trump-linked groups and a conspiracy theory repost, and T-Boz wants no part of the story.
TLC’s Rozonda Chilli Thomas is facing backlash after a report tied her to nearly $1,000 in donations to Donald Trump-linked organizations and surfaced a reposted conspiracy theory about Michelle Obama on her social media. Her bandmate, Tionne T-Boz Watkins, has since made clear she wants no part of that association.
The controversy began when The Independent reported that Thomas had donated to WinRed, the payment processing platform used for Republican fundraising, and to Never Surrender Inc., a leadership PAC connected to Trump. Her name and a Georgia address publicly associated with her were attached to the donations. A separate donation to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign was also attributed to her. The reports surfaced days after TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, and En Vogue announced a joint summer and fall tour across more than 30 stadiums and amphitheaters nationwide.
What Chilli said in response
Thomas responded in a video posted to her Instagram account, where she has 1.4 million followers, addressing both the repost and the donations separately.
On the Michelle Obama conspiracy theory, Thomas said she had no idea she had shared it until friends and family began reaching out. She described the accidental repost as a product of Instagram’s interface, pointing to the repost button’s proximity to other buttons in the app as the source of the error. She expressed admiration for Obama and said she would never share anything disrespectful toward her or any other woman.
On the donations, Thomas said she believed she was contributing to causes related to fighting human trafficking and supporting veterans, citing her father’s military service as the reason those issues matter to her personally. She said she did not read the fine print carefully and did not realize where her money was going. She added that she voted for Barack Obama in both of his presidential campaigns and contributed to both of those efforts as well.
Thomas was also reported by HuffPost to have followed several prominent conservative figures on Instagram, including Donald Trump Jr., commentator Tomi Lahren, and Republican Rep. Byron Donalds. Those accounts were no longer in her following list by the time the reports circulated.
What Thomas did not address in her statement was why her name appears directly on donations to Trump’s fundraising committee rather than only to the broader causes she described.
T-Boz draws a clear line
Sources close to T-Boz told multiple outlets that the singer has maintained consistent public positions on issues including sexual health, HIV awareness, LGBTQ rights, and the Black Lives Matter movement over the course of her career. Those sources pointed to a 2017 interview with Channel 4 UK News in which T-Boz said she did not concern herself with Trump and considered God her president. Her camp said that position has not shifted and that T-Boz should not be drawn into any narrative that contradicts it.
T-Boz co-founded TLC alongside Thomas and the late Lisa Left Eye Lopes, who died in 2002.
The tour goes on
The timing of the controversy was notable. TLC had just appeared alongside Salt-N-Pepa at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards on March 26, and the announcement of the It’s Iconic Tour had generated considerable attention for all three groups involved. The tour runs from August through October.
Thomas has asked publicly for grace as she works through the situation. Whether the explanation satisfies the fans and observers who raised the initial questions is a separate matter. The donations were made, the repost happened, and now she has offered her account of both.
Story credit: TMZ, DAILY BEAST