Nine Months into Donald Trump’s second presidential term, Ariana Grande wants to know how that’s working out for you. The Wicked: For Good star took to her Instagram Stories on Sunday with a series of poignant questions for Trump’s MAGA followers nearly a year into the president’s second term in office.
The list originally came from makeup artist/activist Matt Bernstein, who posted it on Sunday (Sept. 28), with Grande reposting it hours later. The singer, 32, who supported former Vice President Kamala Harris in the most recent presidential election and backed Vermont independent Bernie Sanders in 2020, shared the list of questions that begins: “I want to check in with trump voters. I have one very genuine question. it’s been 250 days. now that immigrants have been violently torn from their families and communities have been destroyed, now that trans people have been blamed for virtually everything and live in fear, now that free speech is on the brink of collapse for us all — has your life gotten better?”
The post appeared to be referencing some of Trump’s most controversial moves in his second White House run so far, including his promised widespread immigration sweep, which has so far reportedly resulted in at least 500 migrant children living in the U.S. being taken from their homes. And though it does not name Trump specifically, it also appears to reference the Trump administration’s repeated broadsides against the trans community, which have included executive orders banning transgender people from serving in the military and denying the right to used an “X” gender marker on passports.
The latter bit also appeared to be a commentary on Trump and his FCC chair Brendan Carr’s apparent efforts to push late night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air with threats of potential government action against the ABC affiliates who air the show by comedian who is a frequent Trump critic.
Grande’s re-post of Bernstein’s missive continued with a string of questions about the enduring problems facing the nation that Trump vowed to fix on day one in office, but which linger at the moment amid the emerging economic fall-out from the president’s high global tariffs and uncertainty about the financial impact the looming government shutdown may have for some Americans.
“Have your groceries gotten cheaper?” it asks of one of the many issues Trump promised to fix in his first days in office that have lingered, or gotten worse. “has your health insurance premium gone down? has your work/life balance improved? can you take a vacation yet? are you happier? has the widespread suffering of others paid off for you in the way he promised it would, or are you still waiting?”
Back in June, Grande shared a message from New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling for Trump’s impeachment. “The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment,” AOC wrote at the time, a day after the U.S. launched missile strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites, seemingly without asking for the necessary approval from Congress.
After Trump’s inauguration in January, Grande re-posted a message from Advocates for Trans Equality reading “No matter what comes, we will protect each other,” after Trump signed a day-one executive order stating that the U.S. would recognize only the male and female sexes.
Grande is preparing to fly back into theaters on Nov. 21 for Wicked: For Good, the second part of her big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical re-telling of the Wizard of Oz story.
