Jermaine Says This Is Who MJ Would Support In 2016

One of the interesting things about presidential campaign season is seeing where the support of some of the country's high-profile, iconic celebrities shakes out in the end ― the rich, visible, and famous have political ideals just like the rest of us, after all. And while this is a posthumous example raised by a sibling, it does show that it's not only Bernie Sanders who's got pop cultural appeal: As shown in a video from celebrity gossip site TMZ, Jermaine Jackson believes Michael Jackson would've supported Hillary Clinton, and it wasn't a hesitant prediction.

From the looks of things, TMZ tracked down Jermaine, the former Jackson 5 standout, while he was at Los Angeles International Airport. And despite the fact that Republican front-runner Donald Trump claimed the late King of Pop as a friend in a Republican town hall months ago (complete with a dig at Jackson's plastic surgery history that Jermaine clearly didn't appreciate), at least to hear his brother tell it, Michael would've been voting for Clinton come election day.

In fairness, Jermaine's explanation didn't dive into Michael's political views with any particular depth, instead staying pretty simple and straightforward ― when asked who his brother would've voted for, he replied "Hillary, hands down," following up with "of course, we're Democrats."

It's no surprise why Jermaine might have an unfavorable view of Trump himself, setting aside his prediction about his brother's rooting interests ― it was during the CNN South Carolina town hall event in February, when Trump was asked about his favorite music. Trump cited the Rolling Stones and The Beatles as a couple of examples, before seguing into talking about Michael, lauding the fact that the late pop star used to live in Trump Tower, a place the real estate mogul tends to speak of with all the reverence of a skyscraper version of Xanadu.

But Trump also heaped some dirt on Michael's use of plastic surgery ― one of the oldest and least original things to bring up in a discussion of his career, frankly, and not something that Jermaine took kindly to. After Trump claimed that bad plastic surgery work on Michael's face cause him to "lose his confidence," Jermaine responded with a denunciation, tweeting, "Name-dropping Michael don't make you cool and won't win you votes. Especially when using botched facts." And he threw in a slightly more pointed barb for good measure, too.

According to The Hill, while Michael's politics were never a very forward-facing aspect of his public persona, he did once perform at a 2002 fundraiser put on by the Democratic National Convention, introduced by former president Bill Clinton.