Royce White, a former NBA player and current right-wing activist, was endorsed by the Minnesota Republican Party last night ahead of the state's Republican primary election in August. If White wins his primary, he will take on incumbent Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) in November.
But Royce's social media is littered with derogatory statements and offensive slurs.
The Daily Dot found tweets from White that include homophobic and transphobic slurs that the candidate posted, all within the last two and a half years.
White has said he is against the LGBTQ community—which he calls "the church of LGBTQ."
He first ran for Congress in Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-Minn.) district in 2022 and lost the Republican primary. Though White was drafted and traded onto four different NBA teams, he never played a regular season game in the league.
White returned to prominence in 2020 when protesting with Black Lives Matter in the aftermath of George Floyd's death. As reported by Mother Jones, though, he has since disavowed BLM as he said the movement wants Black men like him to be "dead, gay, sold out, or on the wrong end of sexual harassment or Me Too allegations."
In 2021, White met former President Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon through a celebrity basketball game and was transformed: He became a MAGA Republican. Last night, a video from Bannon introduced White at the Minnesota State Republican convention, where he accepted the state party's endorsement.
"Thank you delegates. The people chose a leader they know can't be bought. You Democrats better come with way more than petty character attacks and my mean tweets," White posted last night about the endorsement. "I keep it plain and simple, people understand. The People Are Coming!"
White has posted many "mean tweets," a handful of which include homophobic and transphobic slurs.
Last January, White said outlets like the Guardian, the Washington Post, Mother Jones, and the Minnesota Star-Tribune prosecuted him during his 2022 campaign, and that reporters at the outlets are "f*gs."
"These beta, cuck, f*gs (non sexual), are foot soldiers of the New World Order," White tweeted. "These guys are going be bombing dissidents from cupboards. Fuck em!"
And in response to tweets critical of him, White tweeted "f*g."
White has at least seven tweets using the slur.
In other tweets, White used the slur "t****y," a derogatory word used to refer to transgender people.
When discussing mental health, about which White has always been outspoken having struggled himself, he tweeted in September 2023 that "mental Health is the most important societal issue we face."
He then specified the type of "mental health" he was referring to.
"Not woke 'Mental Health', with T****y Godmothers… The human psychology!" White tweeted. "We’ve been brainwashed, anybody who dares to say it or do something about it is gaslit or taken out."
In a clip of White speaking on a podcast that he tweeted alongside his statement about "T****y Godmothers," White said that people only identify as LGBTQ because it's trendy and to gain acceptance from white people and referenced a now-deleted tweet from Chaya Raichik about an all-ages drag show attended by Duluth, Minnesota children.
Raichik runs the anti-LGBTQ X account @LibsofTikTok. Her tweets have been connected to bomb threats nationwide. Drag queens are a target of right-wing politicians—Republican state lawmakers in Tennessee passed a bill banning drag shows in public spaces that was later overturned by a federal judge for being unconstitutional.
But as White said in his tweet about winning the Minnesota Republican Party's endorsement, he is "going to say what [he wants]." In a December 2022 tweet in which he wrote that actor Sean Penn is a "f*g," he also said he isn't afraid of being canceled.
"Cancel deez nuts… I’m going to say what I want," White tweeted. "Ppl who want throw a fit about it and go, 'You can’t be a politician and talk like that...' They’re in on it!"
Although Minnesota’s Republican Primary isn’t until August, the state party’s endorsement is designed to clear the crowded field beforehand. White is running against six other men, including Navy veteran Joe Fraser, John Berman, an engineer, and Patrick Munro, a business owner.
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