A$AP Rocky feared former U.S. leader Donald Trump’s bid to get him out of jail in Sweden in 2019 would lead to more time behind bars.
The rapper was jailed following a street fight and detained during an official investigation, prompting then-President Trump to intervene and demand his immediate release.
Trump assigned his son-in-law Jared Kushner and the U.S. State Department’s top hostage negotiator to take charge of the situation and get Rocky, real name Rakim Mayers, out.
“I kinda was scared that Trump was going to f### it up,” the rap star says in the new documentary “Stockholm Syndrome,” which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. “But then on the other hand, I’m just like, ‘That’s what’s up, man!’”
Recalling the moment he learned he was a free man, thanks in part to Trump, Rocky recalls, “I’m sleeping in my halfway dream. I heard my name. I kind of opened my eyes and closed my eyes again and then they said my name again. And I opened my eyes and I’m like, ‘Yo, what the f###?’”
Trump also appears in the film, revealing he was approached by several leading members of the black community, urging him to help free the rapper.
“It was a chess move and they tried to strong arm a lot,” A$AP Rocky says. “You want the most support you could (get) and it’s like, ‘Oh, the President supports you’. That felt good. ‘Cause for the most part, I don’t think he ever knows what’s going on in the urban communities. I was thankful for that, I can’t lie. I was also scared that it would jeopardize me being in (jail) longer.”