A Michigan beauty pageant winner who was dethroned after posting racially insensitive and Islamophobic comments on her social media has decided to work for President Trump. Well, sort of.
Kathy Zhu, a 20-year-old University of Michigan student, will be working on the Women for Trump Coalition Advisory Board.
"I am so excited to now be part of the #WomenforTrump Coalition Advisory Board! Let’s get Trump re-elected for 2020," Zhu tweeted on Thursdsay.
The conservative activist was dethroned by the Miss World America organization, which described her social media posts as “offensive, insensitive, and inappropriate,” and indicated that she violated the competition’s rules for “good character.”
Zhu, who describes herself as a liberal-turned-conservative, served as the featured speaker at a Women for Trump luncheon that took place in Bloomfield Hills on Friday.
"It seems harder to come out as a conservative than it does as being gay," Zhu said at the luncheon, according to The Detroit Free Press. She reportedly received a standing ovation at the event.
One of the tweets that resulted in her dethroning involved racially insensitive commentary regarding Black people: “Did you know the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks?” Zhu wrote in a now-deleted tweet. “Fix problems within your own community before blaming others.”
As MT previously reported, Zhu said she was responding to a Twitter thread where people were discussing how police use excessive force on African-Americans. Zhu seemed to ignore the fact that Black people are subjected to a disproportionate amount of police brutality. According to Vox, "Black people are much more likely to be shot by police than their white peers." In addition, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that most white murders are committed by white people.
Another now-deleted Islamophobic tweet by Zhu during her time as a freshman at University of Central Florida focused on the Muslim community: “There is a ‘try a hijab on’ booth at my college campus,” Zhu tweeted. “So you’re telling me that it’s now just a fashion accessory and not a religious thing? Or are you just trying to get women used to being oppressed under Islam?”
Zhu later tweeted that her refusal to “try on a hijab” is what lost her the crown, when in fact it was the blanket statement she made about Islam being oppressive.
Zhu continues to defend both tweets.
In yet another deleted tweet from December 2016, Zhu, who is Chinese-American, stated, "China makes major moves to ban Islam. China knows what's up."
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