Michigan Pageant Winner Who Lost Crown for Her Conservative Views Joins Trump Re-Election Campaign

Kathy Zhu, a former winner of Miss Michigan who was stripped of her crown due to her conservative political views, has joined the re-election team for President Donald Trump. The official Twitter account for Team Trump tweeted out a welcome to Zhu, calling her a “Patriot who has continued to stand for American values despite being stripped of her crown.”

The 20-year-old received an email from the pageant last week announcing she had been removed from her position. Zhu shared the email on Twitter, which read; “It has been brought to the attention of Miss World America ‘MWA’ that your social media accounts contain offensive, insensitive, and inappropriate content.”

Miss World America's State/National/Chief Director accused me of being racist, Islamaphobic, and insensitive.

They stripped me of my Miss Michigan title due to my refusal to try on a hijab in 2018, my tweet about black on black gun violence, and "insensitive" statistical tweets. pic.twitter.com/K1Btho0Pgq

— Kathy Zhu (@PoliticalKathy) July 19, 2019

The letter also stated that Zhu didn’t meet the criteria of being “in good character,” meaning “therefore, and effective immediately, MWA does not recognize you as a participant of any sort or in any capacity as it relates to any and all events of MWA.”

The social media posts in question were aimed at the oppression women face under sharia law and also at gun violence in black communities. 

Zhu released a Twitter video where she fought back against what she considered discrimination against her political views. She said in the video that ‘little attacks like those really, really diminishes the value and trust of the word “racism.”’ 

Zhu is studying political science at the University of Michigan and is an avid supporter of President Donald Trump. She is also the Vice President for the College Republican Group at the university. 

The ruling by the MWA means that she will no longer represent Michigan in the Miss World America Pageant being held in Las Vegas. 

For her part, Zhu stands by her old tweets. She tweeted out, “I am glad this story came to light because this is just more than some beauty pageant. This is about the prejudice views against people with different opinions.”