Kesha Voices Support for Former Miss Universe Alicia Machado

If you’ve been paying attention to the election in the past few weeks, you’ve probably heard the name Alicia Machado. The Venezuelan-born pageant star was crowned Miss Universe when Trump was a part of the franchise, and she faced his body-shaming comments first-hand (he called her ‘Miss Piggy’ and ‘Miss Housekeeping.’) Now, Kesha is joining the national conversation by coming out against Trump.

“I want to give my support and respect to you, Alicia. You did not deserve to be shamed by this monster,” Kesha wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday. “Your body is NO ONE else’s business. Donald Trump said that your body or weight was an issue (which makes me so sad and just sick).”

The singer also mentioned her personal experience with body-shaming: Kesha said in her trial against Dr. Luke that he pressured her to lose weight. “Dr. Luke told a friend of ours he thought [Kesha] looked like a refrigerator on her latest video, and could she please try to control her weight,” Kesha’s mother told PEOPLE in 2014. Just this week, Trump made a similar comment, saying that Machado’s weight gain after the competition was “a real problem.”

“I find the real problem here being his bloated, arrogant ego and offensive, racist, misogynist verbal diarrhea,” Kesha said in the post. “He is a bully. WORDS mean something, and can be extremely hurtful and dangerous. They stay deep inside you and can affect your emotional and mental health. I know this from personal experience. They are hard, and sometimes impossible, to ever forget.”

“Please don’t let him get to you any longer,” she said to Machado. “Instead realize that you are a strong woman and a beautiful role model for standing up and telling the truth, even if it hurts to remember it.”

[h/t Huffington Post]