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Snoop Dogg; Ana Navarro on ‘The View’ ; Donald Trump

Ana Navarro made The View audience gasp after she compared rapper Snoop Dogg to a “trained seal” following the recording artist’s recent performance at a pro-Donald Trump event.

The 53-year-old Republican and staunch Trump critic made the surprising comparison on Tuesday’s live episode of the talk show, after cohost Sunny Hostin pointed out what she felt was hypocrisy over Black performers participating in inaugural events — including Snoop, Nelly, and the Village People’s Victor Willis — for a politician she feels hasn’t fairly treated people of color.

Navarro then criticized Snoop for apparently switching beliefs, primarily because of the things the rapper did “before the inaugural in 2017” — including filming a portion of his “Lavender” music video that saw him holding a gun to a Trump lookalike’s head.

“If you opposed and stood up against Trump in 2017, but you were there now. If you spoke up against Trump Jan. 7, 2021, but you were there now applauding him like a trained seal — Donald Trump has not changed, you’ve changed,” Navarro said, referencing Snoop’s weekend appearance at a pre-inaugural ceremony called the Crypto Ball.

After his controversial inclusion of the Trump figure in his music video, Snoop eventually shifted his tune and praised the politician in a 2024 interview with The Times.

“He ain’t done nothing wrong to me. He has done only great things for me. He pardoned Michael Harris,” Snoop told the outlet, with regard to Harris, the founder of Death Row Records, the label that made Snoop a mainstream success in the 1990s. “So, I have nothing but love and respect for Donald Trump.”

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to a representative for Snoop for comment.

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Carrie Underwood performing at Donald Trump’s inauguration
Following Navarro’s comments, former View cohost Meghan McCain — who previously went on a public tirade about her former colleague after Navarro said on the air (without naming names) that past View stars have influence-peddled on their famous last names — also reposted a message on X that harshly criticized Navarro’s words about Snoop.

Later on Tuesday’s episode of The View, Navarro’s fellow panelist Alyssa Farah Griffin (a former Trump associate, with whom Navarro regularly clashes) also pushed back against the notion of criticizing performers for participating in presidential ceremonies.

“I don’t come for the artists,” Griffin, 35, said, going on to highlight her support for Carrie Underwood’s heavily criticized decision to perform “America the Beautiful” at Monday’s inauguration. “I think people see it as part of American tradition to be part of this. They can issue statements if they want to clarify what their views are on Trump. I don’t like coming for he artists. I think if you feel like people need to be boycotting Donald Trump — which I disagree with — I’d go to the politicians. If Barack Obama can show up for him, why shouldn’t Snoop Dogg?”

Rapper Nelly also recently responded to criticism for his performance at Trump’s inaugural ball, after sitting for a lengthy discussion with fellow rapper Willie D Saturday night on YouTube.

“I’m not political. I’m not out here trying to tell anybody who they should vote for,” Nelly said. “This is not a campaign trail. This is not me telling you, ‘Yo, you should vote for this candidate.’ I think you should do your homework and figure out what best helps you and the people who you love and you provide for because I’m clueless on a lot of things when it gets down to it.”