Rapper Cardi B has ripped into Donald Trump over his prolonged government shutdown, saying the US had become a "hellhole" and that she was "scared" for her country.
The 26-year-old - one of the world's biggest music stars - posted a strongly-worded Instagram video after federal workers continued to work without pay.
The Money rapper called for people to "take action" with almost 800,000 federal employees currently furloughed or working without pay as the shutdown approaches four weeks.
Cardi B - real name Belcalis Almanzar - said: "It's been a little bit over three weeks, Trump is now ordering - as in summonsing - federal government workers to go back to work without getting paid!
"Now, I don't want to hear y'all motherf****** talking about, 'oh, but Obama shut down the government for 17 days' - yeah b****, for healthcare! So your grandma can check her blood pressure."
The musician told her 39.7 million followers the shutdown was "crazy".
"This s*** is really f****** serious, bro. This s*** is crazy. Like our country is in a hellhole right now, all for a f****** wall," she said.
"We really need to take this serious, I feel like we need to take some action, I don't know what type of action b**** because this is not what I do, but b**** I'm scared.
"This is crazy, and I really feel bad for these people that got to go to f****** work to not get motherf****** paid."
Shortly after uploading the video, numerous fans posted under the hashtag #CardiB2020 on Twitter calling for her to run for president at the next election.
Cardi B's intervention comes as Mr. Trump was urged to delay his State of the Union address if the shutdown was not resolved.
Nancy Pelosi, the House of Representatives speaker, said the speech - scheduled for 29 January - would place an undue burden on the departments responsible for security if the government did not reopen this week.
As an alternative, she suggested that his address should be delivered in writing instead.
The shutdown has become the longest in US history and was brought into effect following a stalemate with Democrats over funding for the president's plans for a US-Mexico border wall.
He claims the wall will act as a deterrent to those entering the US illegally, putting an end to human trafficking and other crimes.
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