Vanilla Ice brought his "Ice Ice Baby" antics to Donald Trump's private club at Mar-a-Lago for New Year's Eve.
Footage from the strange occasion shows attendees recording and dancing in the crowd while Vanilla Ice performed onstage with backing vocalists. Also in the crowd was a suit and bow tie-wearing Trump, who seemed unenthused at the NYE festivities.
The event made Vanilla Ice a trending topic on X, although the '90s rapper made headlines last month for claiming to have had close affiliations with 2Pac and Pablo Escobar. Dec. 31 also wasn't Vanilla Ice's first time ringing in the New Year at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, as the 56-year-old performed at the location in 2020 going into 2021, per Billboard.
Ice also performed his song "Ninja Rap" (his song from the 1991 movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze) with a person dressed as Michaelangelo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on stage.
“Ok this is amazing,” Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., wrote in his Facebook Live caption from the performance. “Vanilla Ice is playing the Mar-a-Lago New Years [sic] Eve party. As a child of the 90s you can’t fathom how awesome that is. Beyond that I got the birthday shoutout so that’s pretty amazing.”
Vanilla Ice later stood by his appearance in a press statement, claiming that it wasn't "about politics at all."
“The New Year’s Eve celebration at Mar-a-Lago was awesome. We danced we celebrated. We had a great time. It was a very classy event at a beautiful Palm Beach landmark," he said. "Everyone was cleared from Covid test prior to the event. I think everyone just wants to get out and dance and have fun. We’ve all been marinating, trapped in our houses. It’s not about politics at all. This is about dancing and enjoying New Year’s. And I wish everyone a very happy new year.”
