A black conservative influencer is set to launch a lawsuit against New York Magazine claiming its controversial cover story about young pro-Trump people is racist. 

CJ Pearson, a former Trump campaign staffer and MAGA media personality, said he plans to take legal action over the magazine’s ‘Cruel Kids’ Table’ cover story. 

The front-page feature from writer Brock Colyar bashed the emergence of ‘casually cruel Trumpers’, who he said were ‘conquering Washington’ as a new generation of right-wingers. 

After the cover story went viral, the magazine faced backlash for apparently cropping out black attendees from the main image, taken at the ‘Power 30 Awards,’ a TikTok event celebrating influencers who supported Donald Trump’s reelection. 

Pearson, who’s hand appeared in the cover but his face and body were cropped out, said he has not yet filed a lawsuit but plans to do so over the ‘despicable’ cover story. 

‘They don’t get to slander us as racist. They don’t get to libel us in print. We need to fight back and hold their feet to the fire,’ he told Fox News. 

‘I am sick and tired of the left-wing mainstream media having a license to lie about conservatives and never be held accountable. 

‘If they want to slander us as racist, they ought to pay the cost when they do it.’ 

CJ Pearson, a former Trump campaign staffer and MAGA media personality, said he plans to take legal action against New York Magazine’s January cover story

New York Magazine came under scrutiny for sharing its ‘Cruel Kids’ Table’ feature cover last month, taken at the ‘Power 30 Awards,’ a TikTok event celebrating influencers who supported Donald Trump ‘s reelection 

The magazine faced backlash after it was revealed that the outlet cropped out several black attendees, which Pearson claims was aimed at ‘depicting this as an all-White exclusive affair’ 

Pearson serves as the national co-chair of the Republican National Committee’s Youth Advisory Council, which co-hosted the event that the New York Magazine cover focused upon. 

He said the party was intended to be a celebration of young influencers who helped secure Trump a second term, with many pundits crediting Trump’s unorthodox reliance on social media and podcasts over traditional media during the election. 

But the event instead faced unintended scrutiny due to the New York Magazine article, he said. 

‘The party blew up because a New York Magazine reporter… decided to essentially slander everyone in the room, trying to depict the event as if it was some KKK kumbaya pizza party,’ Pearson continued. 

‘This was a jubilant celebration celebrating the fact that we are back and that we finally have someone who’s coherent, someone who actually cares about the American people in the White House. 

‘I think the New York Magazine was very clear in the body of their piece that they wanted to, you know, describe this and depict this as an all-white exclusive affair.’ 

Pearson said that far from how the event was depicted, the party was not only attended by ‘many black men’, but was even organized by them. 

‘The headline performer was a black man, Waka Flocka Flame, it doesn’t get more black than that,’ he added to Fox News. 

Pearson, pictured with President Trump, serves as the national co-chair of the Republican National Committee’s Youth Advisory Council, which co-hosted the event that the New York Magazine cover focused upon

The influencer said the magazine’s depiction of the event was ‘absurd’, and said he decided to file a lawsuit because ‘if they want to slander us as racist, they ought to pay the cost when they do it’

Pearson said that far from how the event was depicted, the party was not only attended by ‘many Black men’, but was even organized by them 

Pearson said he was ‘disgusted’ when he discovered that he was cropped out of the cover image. 

‘I was even more disgusted when I realized that the other people that were cropped out had one pretty striking similarity to me. We were all people of color. And I think that it was absolutely intentional,’ he continued. 

‘They wanted to make us look like KKK lite, and that’s why they excluded all the black people from the photo. It’s why they excluded all the black people from the piece as a whole. 

‘It’s why they excluded me from the story and didn’t do the basic journalistic duty of reaching out to me for comment because they already had their narrative before they entered the door. 

‘They already had, you know, the lies that they were going to tell before they even sat down to write the article.’ 

Pearsons said he intends to move ‘fairly quickly’ in filing a legal action against New York Magazine. The outlet did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by DailyMail.com. 

Pearson previously called out the magazine’s cover story on X, sharing an image of himself with other black attendees 

The influencer said he intends to file a lawsuit to ‘hold the media accountable’, and ‘in the spirit of President Trump, we’ve got to we’ve got to fight back, and we’ve got to fight back hard. They don’t get to slander us as racist.’  

‘They don’t get to libel us in print. We need to fight back and hold their feet to the fire,’ he concluded. 

‘And once we do that, I guarantee you will think a lot harder the next time they want to defame a bunch of people for simply loving America, loving their country and loving President Donald J. Trump.’ 

In a past statement addressing criticisms of the cover, New York Magazine said: ‘The magazine’s most recent cover story explores the new class of conservatives taking Washington by storm, through the lens of inauguration weekend. 

‘The cover was cropped to the center of a picture that was published in full online, and we believe both the cover and story provide an accurate impression of the weekend.’