Blue Lives Matter drops Jelly Roll from Mar-a-Lago police gala

Blue Lives Matter has withdrawn its invitation for country singer Jelly Roll to perform at its Mar-a-Lago fundraiser after the entertainer spent a week mocking President Trump and his supporters while guest-hosting “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

The singer, whose legal name is Jason Bradley DeFord, filled in for Jimmy Kimmel from Aug. 24-27 and used his opening monologues to needle Mr. Trump over his weight, his approval ratings and his appearance at the Freedom 250 Grand Prix in Washington. During his first night behind the desk, Mr. DeFord called himself and the president one fat pig to another, joking that his own 300-pound weight loss meant he had lost “an entire Donald Trump.”

The remarks drew immediate backlash from some conservative fans and commentators, and later in the week Mr. DeFord told his audience that anyone offended was free to abandon his music. Newsmax host Carl Higbie took him up on it, deleting the singer’s songs from his phone on air and declaring, “OK, dude, OK. I’ll be deleting his music as we speak.”

The fallout drew claims of a significant online following loss, though the figures come from partisan and secondhand sources rather than independent audits. Conservative commentator Benny Johnson said his team’s tracking found at least 200,000 unsubscribes and unfollows across Mr. DeFord’s social media accounts since the Kimmel stint began — a figure that has not been independently verified. Separately, entertainment site That Park Place, citing third-party analytics service DolphinRadar, reported that Mr. DeFord’s Instagram following fell by more than 53,000 over nine days — a narrower, platform-specific figure that is itself one outlet’s reading of outside tracking data, not a company-confirmed count.

Blue Lives Matter, which had invited Mr. DeFord on April 26 to perform at its Nov. 17 “Big Blue Bash” — a fundraiser for the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Foundation — announced the reversal on X on Friday, writing that it had “made the mistake” of extending the invitation. Kyle Reyes, who owns Blue Lives Matter along with Law Enforcement Today and The Police Tribune, told The Post Millennial that welcoming Mr. DeFord back would mean inviting a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Country singer Coffey Anderson has since been booked to replace him, with Mr. Reyes saying Mr. Anderson will close the gala with worship music.

Mr. DeFord softened his tone by the end of the week, tearing up on air and describing himself as more centrist than his monologues suggested, though he did not apologize for the remarks.