People Are Naming The Celebs They Were Shocked To Learn Were MAGA — And I'm Sorry, But Adam Sandler Just Broke My Brain

Jamie Ko / BuzzFeed Wed, July 15, 2026 at 4:25 PM UTC

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We all know there are Republicans in Hollywood, but some celebrities just seem SO liberal based on their fanbase, curated image, or literally everything about them that you can’t help but be surprised when they’re actually conservative. So, we asked the BuzzFeed Community which famous people they were most shocked to learn were actually Republican/conservative. Here are the 15 submissions that genuinely caught me off guard...

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"Adam Sandler surprised me. I grew up watching all of his movies and just always assumed he was more liberal for some reason. Then I found out he donated to a Republican presidential campaign and supports Israel. I definitely did not expect that one."

— Anonymous


Sandler has stayed VERY quiet about his personal politics, which is probably why this is so shocking to fans. But in 2007, he donated $2,100 to Republican Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign. He’s also been very outspoken about supporting Israel, calling himself “very pro-Israel” and criticizing celebrities who boycott the country. Although supporting Israel does not automatically make someone Republican, fans are growing more and more skeptical as Sandler has stayed silent when questioned online.

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“Zachary Levi devastated me. ‘Tangled’ has gotten me through a lot, including a really bad depressive episode where I honestly wasn’t sure I was going to make it. So finding out Flynn Rider thinks Jordan Peterson is a deep thinker, supported Trump and RFK, and has spoken out against vaccines really messed me up. I’m queer, female, and disabled, so it just feels awful knowing someone who was part of something that basically saved my life supports people who seem to hate people like me.”

— Anonymous, 34 F


For context, Levi first backed RFK Jr. in the 2024 presidential election, then publicly endorsed Donald Trump after RFK Jr. dropped out. And the vaccine controversy this reader mentioned is also very real. Levi faced immense backlash during COVID after saying he “********” agreed that Pfizer was a “real danger to the world.”

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“Taylor Swift. She made SUCH a big deal about finally speaking up about politics in Miss Americana and not wanting to be silent anymore, so I really believed her. Now she hangs out with loud Trump supporters all the time and barely says anything political. I know she endorsed Kamala and I’m not saying she’s secretly MAGA, but it is just weird seeing how different she is now compared to how passionate she acted in that documentary.”

— Anonymous, 28, F


Although Swift has publicly endorsed Democratic candidates in previous elections, some fans have recently ridiculed her for what they see as an increasingly suspicious political shift. She’s become very close friends with Brittany Mahomes (a notorious Trump supporter), and Swift has also grown noticeably quieter about politics. Then, when the Trump administration repeatedly used her music in promotional posts in 2025, Swift stayed completely silent while other musicians had publicly condemned similar uses of their work.

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“Hugh Jackman might not be MAGA but he’s literally besties with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner so I’m sorry, I’m counting it. He just always seemed like one of those super nice, normal celebrities who would obviously be more liberal. I love his movies but finding out how close he is with the Trump family was honestly kind of disappointing.”

— Anonymous, 14, Agender


Jackman’s longtime friendship with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner is very real. In 2018, Jackman said he’d known them for about 15 years and publicly defended his decision to stay friends with them despite their political differences. He said, “We don’t talk politics,” and basically asked why he should dump his longtime friends just because Ivanka’s father became president.

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“Nicki Minaj. I have been a fan of hers since I was literally a kid, and watching her political shift in real time has been so bizarre. She built such a huge fanbase of women and queer people, talked about coming to America as an immigrant, and now she’s openly praising Trump and JD Vance. I know celebrities don’t owe us the same political beliefs, but I can’t help that it changed how I see her.”

— Anonymous


If you’ve somehow missed Minaj’s recent political era, she is definitely not being subtle about it. Minaj previously criticized Trump’s immigration policies while speaking about coming to the US as an undocumented child. But in January 2026, she completely flipped and stood at a Trump administration event, calling herself the president’s “number one fan.” Her increasingly public embrace of Trump and conservative politics has been a dramatic shift from the woman fans remember her as.

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“Snoop Dogg. I know he kissed Trump’s *** to get his friend out of prison, but it still broke my heart. 😭”

— acidictiger967


For anyone confused, the friend they’re talking about is Death Row Records co-founder Michael “Harry-O” Harris, whose prison sentence Trump commuted in 2021. Snoop used to be VERY publicly anti-Trump. But after the commutation, Snoop praised Trump over what he’d done for Harris. Then, in 2025, he performed at the Crypto Ball during Trump’s inauguration weekend and got dragged through the mud by fans for it. Snoop has since pushed back on the idea that the performance was a Trump endorsement, but I’m struggling to see how it’s not one 😭?

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“Sylvester Stallone. I couldn’t believe Rocky supported a racist insurrectionist. I quit watching ‘Tulsa King’ halfway through the season because I couldn’t look at him without feeling contempt.”

— mushyzombie773


In 2024, Stallone introduced Trump at an event and literally called him the “second George Washington.” Then, before Trump returned to office, he named Stallone one of his three “special ambassadors” to Hollywood alongside Mel Gibson and Jon Voight. So...safe to say Rocky is definitely a fan.

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“The Rock. His whole political change has been really disappointing to me. He publicly endorsed Biden and acted like speaking up mattered, and then a few years later he said he regretted getting political and basically backed away from saying anything. It felt like he wanted credit for being outspoken when it was safe and then disappeared when things got harder.”

— Anonymous


Dwayne Johnson has never said he’s Republican, but people have been questioning whether he’s shifted to the right for a while now. After making his first-ever presidential endorsement Joe Biden in 2020, Johnson later said he regretted it, refused to endorse anyone in 2024, and started openly criticizing “woke culture” and how easily people get offended. Now, in 2026, he’s doubled down on keeping his politics private and distancing himself from Hollywood’s political culture. The perceived shift has gotten so noticeable that just days ago, Wil Wheaton called him a “coward” for staying silent.

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“I was so disappointed in Gwen Stefani.” 

— jessethecowgirl


Stefani has never publicly confirmed that she’s Republican, but fans have definitely started side-eyeing a possible political shift. In 2025, she shared an interview between Tucker Carlson and “The Chosen” actor Jonathan Roumie, calling Roumie a “powerful inspirational human” and praising the conversation. That was enough for some longtime fans to accuse the singer of becoming a “right-wing grifter.”

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“Nelly honestly hurt a little. His music was EVERYWHERE when I was growing up, so seeing him perform at a Trump inauguration event was really disappointing. I know he said it wasn’t political, but I don’t buy it nor care.” 

— Anonymous


Nelly hadn’t built his image around conservative politics at all, which made it especially confusing when he agreed to perform at Trump’s official Liberty Ball in 2025. And when fans started calling him out, Nelly defended the decision, saying, “I’m doing this because it’s an honor.” According to the singer/rapper, he “respect[s] the office” and “it doesn’t matter who is in office.”

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“Nicole Scherzinger. I didn’t know what to be more shocked by, the fact that people were saying she was MAGA or the fact that I genuinely never saw it coming. The whole Make Jesus First Again thing and liking the RFK post really threw me off. I know she said people misunderstood her and I obviously don’t know who she voted for, but it definitely made me look at her differently.”

— Anonymous, 33, Female, Connecticut


Scherzinger has never said she’s a Republican or Trump supporter, but right after the 2024 election, she commented on Russell Brand’s photo of a “Make Jesus First Again” hat and asked where she could get one. She had also reportedly liked an RFK Jr. post advocating for Trump’s return. Scherzinger later apologized and said the assumptions people were making about her politics did not reflect who she was, what she stood for, or who she voted for. But this caused additional comments from Scherzinger’s past to resurface, including a 2016 Daily Mail interview where she discussed her pro-life stance on abortion.

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“Gavin DeGraw. I was a huge ‘One Tree Hill’ fan growing up, so finding out the guy who sang the banger ‘I Don’t Want to Be’ performed at one of Trump’s inaugural balls was really disappointing. Obviously, I had no idea what his politics were before that, but I guess I just never expected it from him.” 

— Anonymous


“One Tree Hill” fans, I fear this one’s true, too. DeGraw performed at Trump’s Starlight Ball in 2025 and afterward publicly wrote on his Instagram that it was “nice to have a businessman running the largest economy in the world again.” He also tagged Trump and hashtagged Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, and Tucker Carlson...

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“Kelsey Grammer surprised me. I watched ‘Frasier’ for years, and I just assumed he was liberal because of the character and the show. Finding out how conservative he actually is and how much he supports Trump was definitely sad.” 

— Anonymous


Grammer has actually been openly conservative for yearssss, and in 2023, he very plainly confirmed during a BBC interview that he was still a Trump supporter. Just a week ago, he said to TMZ, “We hang all the time,” and he is “entertaining, charming, and all the things you want a president to be. [It’s] good convo, good times.”

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“Tim Allen. I know this is probably obvious to some people but it was NOT obvious to me. I think I just permanently saw him as Buzz Lightyear and the dad from all those family movies, so finding out how conservative he is genuinely caught me off guard.” 

— Anonymous


Allem has definitely not tried to hide the fact that he’s conservative. He attended Trump’s first inauguration and once compared being openly conservative in Hollywood to living in “’30s Germany,” saying people had to be careful if they didn’t believe what everyone else believed.

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Lastly, “Steven Tyler. I was really disappointed when I found out he was a registered Republican because it just did not match the version of him I had in my head at all. I always thought rock stars from that era were rebellious and anti-establishment, so realizing how many of them are actually pretty conservative has been weird.” 

— Anonymous, Deborah, 53, Ireland 


And yes, Tyler has been reported as a registered Republican. But he doesn’t seem to be a Trump supporter, as he has repeatedly demanded that Trump stop using Aerosmith songs at political rallies, believing it had falsely led people to think he endorsed Trump’s campaign. His attorneys sent cease-and-desist letters regarding “Dream On” and, later, “Livin’ on the Edge.” Although this is a case where being Republican does not automatically make someone a Trump supporter, Tyler has said in a statement, “This is not about Democrats vs. Republicans. [...] I do not let anyone use my songs without my permission.”  Video Updates -

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