The Traitors fans are not so happy with one Faithful on Season 4. Ever since Michael Rapaport was announced as a cast member, fans have been protesting his appearance on the beloved Peacock show.
Season 4 premiered on the streaming service on Jan 8. While each of the cast members was introduced, some fans took to social media to call out the actor. Social media star Tyler Oakley wrote on X, “haaaaate that this season of #TraitorsUS is tainted by piece of shit michael rapaport (🧵 of receipts),” to which he quoted a thread titled, “Michael Rapaport being a disgusting human thread (feel free to add your own examples).” Another netizen wrote, “Michael Rapaport is ANNOYING!!!!! And not in a good for tv kind of way like I want him GONE!!!!!!!!”
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So, what’s the deal with Michael Rapaport? Read all about his controversies below.
In 1997, Michael Rapaport was arrested and charged with harassment after his ex-girlfriend and actress Lili Taylor filed a police report claiming the actor repeatedly called her and showed up at her apartment in the middle of the night, banging on her window.
A judge issued a protection order that kept the actor from contacting Taylor and ordered that Rapaport undergo counseling sessions twice a month for a year.
On Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, Michael Rapaport appeared on the talk show with the Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kenya Moore. Rapaport, a self-proclaimed fan of the Housewives franchise, bantered with the star after a public feud on Twitter. Rapaport once remarked, “Please, you wish you were me, Kenya.”
In the heat of back-and-forth arguments, Rapaport remarked, “I didn’t want to say it on live TV, but Kenya’s feet are ashy as f**k. Them sh*ts are ashy. I didn’t want to say it on live TV because I’m a gentleman, but pan down to them sh*ts, you could cut glass with them sh*ts.”
In an Instagram live video, Moore said about the incident, “I had fun. I don’t have anything against Michael, honestly,” she said. “He’s a superfan. He’s very opinionated.”
Shortly after, Rapaport posted a video of a gorilla alongside Moore on Instagram, which garnered more criticism. In response, he told The Guardian, “First of all, I post monkeys all the time on my stories – I love them. The night I was taping Watch What Happens Live, somebody took the clip with Kenya and [another post] with a seven-hour difference and made it seem like I posted her next to a gorilla. Of course that’s fucking racist. Tell my Black wife, tell all my Black friends and put me on an island alone. Please cancel me!”
In 2018, Michael Rapaport signed with Barstool Sports to produce his podcast I Am Rapaport. His contract entitled him to $600,000, revenue sharing and a promise that the company would make good faith efforts to secure him his own daily radio show on SiriusXM, which would pay out an additional $375,000.
In six months, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy terminated Rapaport’s contract for insulting its fans, and Rapaport responded by posting on Twitter a photoshopped picture of him sodomizing Portnoy. Rapaport then filed a lawsuit accusing the brand of defamation after a t-shirt depicting Rapaport as a clown with a red mark on his chin emerged on the brand’s website.
U.S. Southern District Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, in a 64-page opinion, wrote that a “reasonable audience” could conclude the image was exaggerated.
After the October 7 attacks, which led to the War in Gaza, Rapaport became vocal about pushing anti-Palestine sentiment and supporting Israel on social media.
In a video dated Nov. 18, 2023, he posted a controversial video about the ongoing talks and protests for a ceasefire. “Yo, if 20 American tourists, forget the 1,200 people that were murdered, slaughtered, civilians, if 20 American civilians, all African American, all Black, all ages were taken hostage, and 10 of them were murdered and raped, and there was 10 surviving American tourist hostages that were all Black, there’s not one motherfucker in this country that would be talking about ceasefire,” Rapaport said in the video. “It would be ‘Bring the fucking hostages back, and they better be, they better be alive! They better be pristine.’ There wouldn’t be no ceasefire, there wouldn’t be no — can you imagine college students ripping down posters of 10 Black people from America if they were taken hostage and 10 of them were raped and murdered?”
In 2024, Rapaport’s show at the Vic Theater in Chicago drew protests from pro-Palestinian activists. Rapaport said in response in an interview with NBC, “If it was someone’s thoughts, ideas, sexuality, this would be unacceptable. But because this is Jewish, veiled in Zionist, it’s somehow palatable in 2024 and I will not back down.”
Rania Salem, a member of the USPCN said in a statement announcing the protest, “Chicago has the largest Palestinian population in the U.S., and it is a slap in the face to our community and all those in our city who stand for justice to host an ‘artist’ who wholeheartedly supports the mass murder of Palestinian families.”
Michael Rapaport released images of the private messages that included homophobic and misogynistic language from the NBA Player.
“I’m sorry that people seen the language that I used,” Durant said in an apology. “That’s not really what I want people to see and hear from me, but hopefully I can move past it and get back out on the floor.”
The private messages were seemingly in response to a tweet that Rapaport wrote, “[Durant] seemed deeply in his feeling with the @NBAonTNT crew after the game. DAMNIT he’s super sensitive about everything. Don’t do the interview.”
In the message exchange, Rapaport also repeatedly told Durant, “Go help the kids in BROWNSVILLE, BROOKLYN,” which is a predominantly Black neighborhood in New York City.
In 2024, Michael Rapaport posted a photo of a man playing the violin in front of the backdrop of Auschwitz’s concentration camps. The photo was AI-generated, and the Auschwitz Memorial in Poland told TMZ that Rapaport’s post was “disrespectful.”
In a statement to the gossip site, they said, “Publishing fake, AI-generated images of Auschwitz is not only a dangerous distortion. Such fabrication disrespects victims and harasses their memory. If you see such posts, please don’t share them.”
Rapaport, a longtime New York City resident, has criticized Mayor Zohran Mamdani since he announced his run. Right before the current mayor was inaugurated, Rapaport announced his run for mayor in 2029.
“Let me tell you something, guys, girls, women, children of all ages. 2025 was crazy, and I don’t see it getting any f—ing calmer or cooler in 2026, the way things started. That’s why I’m running for mayor,” he said on his podcast.
He also went on a tirade on Mamdani, saying: “We have a s—t stain at the helm right now. We have a s— stain at the helm right now in New York City, and it is a reality. It is a f—ing reality. I think he’s going to supersede our wildest fears and expectations. Zohran the Zero, Zohran the Ziophobe, he is going to supersede all our fears and expectations.”
