Rihanna blames Americans who did not vote in the 2024 presidential election for sharing responsibility for Donald Trump’s return to the White House, according to reports about an October 27 Instagram exchange under a Hollywood Unlocked post.
The singer’s reply followed a video featuring former MSNBC host Joy Reid discussing Trump’s second term with journalist Charles M. Blow. In the comments, one viewer agreed with Reid and placed responsibility on people who voted for Trump.
“And believe it or not, those who didn’t vote at all, also did this!” Rihanna wrote, according to Reality Tea and The Express Tribune. The wording also appears in the screenshot circulating with the story.
Her response expressed a political judgment about responsibility. It did not provide an election analysis establishing that a different turnout would have produced a different president.
Rihanna blames abstention alongside Trump support
Reality Tea reported that Hollywood Unlocked posted the Reid clip on October 27. The Express Tribune separately described the same exchange, including the viewer’s criticism of Trump voters and Rihanna’s reply broadening that criticism to people who did not participate.
Reid’s argument was that Trump’s presidency reflected what Americans had chosen and deserved. Rihanna’s response did not reject criticism of those who supported him; it added another group to the discussion.
The distinction matters because some descriptions frame the exchange as Rihanna confronting Reid. The reported reply was directed at another Instagram user under a post containing Reid’s remarks.
The original Instagram comment thread could not be directly reviewed for this report. The quotation is therefore attributed to published accounts, rather than presented as an independently inspected live comment. Current reaction totals and the full range of responses have not been verified.
What research says about the nonvoters
Although Rihanna blames nonparticipation, research does not support treating every person who skipped the election as a potential Democratic voter.
Pew Research Center’s analysis of turnout in the 2024 election, published June 26, 2025, found that nonvoters were closely divided in their candidate preferences. Among them, 44% said they would have supported Trump and 40% said they would have supported Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Pew also found that Trump benefited from participation among people who had skipped the previous presidential election. Among those eligible in 2020 who did not vote then but voted in 2024, Trump led Harris by 54% to 42%.
Those findings complicate the assumption that bringing more people to the polls necessarily helps one party. Pew concluded that universal participation in 2024 likely would not have changed the national popular-vote margin very much.
That is a survey-based assessment, not a rerun of the election. Pew checked turnout against voter records, while candidate choices and nonvoters’ preferences came from survey responses.
Skipping an election has different explanations
A separate Pew report published December 4, 2024, documented several reasons people gave for not voting. Some doubted that their vote would matter, some disliked politics, and others described voting as inconvenient.
Among nonvoters, 35% cited a belief that their vote would not make a difference as a major reason. Another 31% cited disliking politics, while 15% cited inconvenience. Respondents could identify more than one major reason.
The report also found that 42% of nonvoters wished afterward that they had voted, while 57% did not. That variety of responses gives a more detailed picture than assuming everyone who abstained had the same motive.
The exchange comes before another national vote
Rihanna blames a decision made in 2024, while the next national election is the November 3, 2026, midterm contest. Those contests will determine the next Congress. Her reported comment was not a new presidential election result or a forecast for those congressional races.
Hourly Times’ coverage of early participation before the midterms explains why turnout totals alone cannot establish which candidates voters supported.
For the upcoming election, voting schedules, ballot-return deadlines and polling locations depend on the voter’s state and locality.
