President Trump tweeted that Kanye West ‘performed a great service to the Black Community’ after West threw his support behind the president in a series of tweets- that were met with hefty backlash.
Kanye has been busy since his return to Twitter after taking a year-long hiatus, but his tweets have become headlines, after repeatedly throwing his support behind President Trump, tweeting a photo sporting his very own Make America Great Again cap, and being photographed in it Friday running errands.
Trump, America’s number one Twitter fan, quickly took notice, and thanked him Thursday. On Friday the president tweeted: ‘Kanye West has performed a great service to the Black Community – Big things are happening and eyes are being opened for the first time in Decades – Legacy Stuff!’
Kanye West continues to show his support for President Donald Trump by wearing his now signed America Great Again hat in Los Angeles
Kanye West and a then President-elect Donald Trump first formed their relationship when they met at Trump Tower in December of 2016 (pictured that day)
Trump took to Twitter to thank Kanye West for his support, and added a special thanks to Chance the Rapper, who said blacks don’t have to be Democrats. Chance later explained in a lengthy post that he does not support Trump’s relationship with the black community
He added a special note to Chance The Rapper, as well as Dr. Darrell Scott, who works with the president and was a member of his transitional team.
‘Thank you also to Chance and Dr. Darrell Scott, they really get it (lowest Black & Hispanic unemployment in history) they really get it (lowest Black & Hispanic unemployment in history).’
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, unemployment for blacks and Hispanics are at or near their lowest point. Latinos had a comparably low unemployment rate in 2008.
On Wednesday, at the beginning of Kanye and the president’s tweet-storm love-fest, Chance said ‘Black people don’t have to be democrats,’ seemingly also supporting the president, and Kanye’s sentiments about Trump.
However, within hours of the president thanking Chance, the rapper posted a lengthy tweet clarifying his stance on the issue of Kanye supporting the president, and how he preceives the president’s relationship with the black community.
WHAT CHANCE THE RAPPER SHARED ABOUT KANYE WEST’S SUPPORT OF THE PRESIDENT AND CLARIFYING THAT HE HIMSELF DOES NOT SUPPORT TRUMP:
The bro-mance between Kanye and Trump, which began in earnest after the elections in 2016, when West met Trump at his home at Trump Towers, where the men posed together, smiling for the cameras.
Kanye sported his Make America Great Again hat on Friday while out running errands.
Also Friday, Kanye tweeted about being called a conservative: ‘I haven’t done enough research on conservatives to call myself or be called one. I’m just refusing to be enslaved by monolithic thought.’
The rapper’s support of the president quickly garnered the attention of the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, after West called Trump a ‘brother,’ defended ‘independent thought, showed off his MAGA hat on Twitter Thursday, and said he wasn’t ‘scared’ of the media.
The committee quickly sent out a fundraising appeal and tried to capitalize the same themes of getting put down that West sprinkled into his tweets of Trump-fandom.
‘The American people do not want to be told what to think or who to support,’ according to the pitch.
‘Group think is a mandate in today’s society and when a free thinker like Kanye West speaks truth, they attack him.’
In December of 2016, Kanye West met with President Donald Trump but soon after deleted all his posts about the President after he was hit with a wave of criticism
Then the committee hedged. ‘We support Kanye speaking his mind, even if sometimes we do not agree on the issues. Do not let them silence you. Get your MAGA hat today,’ it concluded.
West’s Trump accolades surfaced weeks after he resumed tweeting after a one-year hiatus.
Trump doused praise on West over Twitter Thursday after the rapper called Trump his ‘brother’ and said they shared similar ‘dragon energy.’
‘He has good taste,’ the president said during his wide-ranging call-in Thursday morning to Fox & Friends. ‘You know, I have known Kanye a little bit. And I get along with Kanye.’
Trump explained that he believed West was impressed with his record on black, Latino and even female unemployment, reminding the Fox & Friends co-hosts how he would tell African-American voters at rallies ‘What do you have to lose?’
‘He sees that stuff and he’s smart,’ Trump continued. ‘And he says, “Trump is doing a much better job than the Democrats did,”‘ the president added.
President Trump tweeted a ‘thank you’ to Kanye West Wednesday afternoon after a reporter asked about positive comments the rapper had made about Trump during the White House press briefing
In a second tweet about Kanye West, President Trump merely wrote ‘MAGA!’ – which is shorthand for ‘Make America Great Again’
The president was then asked if Republicans had done a bad job trying to court black voters.
‘You know, I think it was just a custom, people don’t realize, if you go back to the Civil War, it was the Republicans who really did the thing,’ Trump said. ‘Lincoln was a Republican.’
‘Somehow it changed over the years and I will say, I really believe it’s changing back,’ he added.
Despite only receiving 8 per cent of the African-American vote in 2016, Trump told Fox & Friends he ‘got a lot of support’ from black voters.
It is true, however, that President Obama had a heavier advantage against Mitt Romney among black Americans in comparison to Hillary Clinton.
Clinton beat Trump by 80 points, while Obama beat Romney by 87 points, according to Pew.
The president’s Thursday morning comments came after he gave the rapper two shout-outs on Twitter on Wednesday.
‘Thank you Kanye, very cool!’ Trump wrote, including West’s original message in his tweet.
In a second tweet, Trump wrote ‘MAGA’ – shorthand for ‘Make America Great Again’ as the president shared the rapper’s photo of his signed red Trump hat.
West had said, ‘You don’t have to agree with trump but the mob can’t make me not love him.’
‘We are both dragon energy. He is my brother,’ West added.
‘I love everyone. I don’t agree with everything anyone does. That’s what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought,’ said the rapper, who is married to reality television star Kim Kardashian.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about Kanye West’s comments at Wednesday’s press briefing
Kanye West continued to show his support for President Donald Trump on Wednesday, even tweeting a picture of himself in a Make America Great Again hat (here with music mogul Lyor Cohen pictured center)
Kanye West has once again declared his support for Donald Trump, calling the president his ‘brother’ and saying they both share ‘dragon energy’
In his next tweet, Kanye wrote that he loved also Clinton and claimed that ‘Trump is pretty much a 50 50 split’ for the people in his life
Less than an hour later, West tweeted that his wife Kim Kardashian had called him about the Trump tweet.
‘My wife just called me and she wanted me to make this clear to everyone. I don’t agree with everything Trump does,’ he wrote.
‘I don’t agree 100% with anyone but myself.’
West also tweeted a photo of himself wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat and referred to himself as a ‘future president.’
West’s public support for Trump even made its way into the discussion at the White House press briefing on Wednesday, shortly before the president sent out his tweet.
A reporter asked Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders if Trump had reached out to West following the rapper’s recent praise.
‘I don’t know of any conversation that they’ve had over the last week or so, I’ll keep you posted if that changes,’ Sanders said, breaking into a smile.
‘I know they met during the transition, that’s the only meeting I’m aware of that’s taken place, or conversation,’ she added, noting, ‘Before everybody has a meltdown and thinks we had a meeting last week.’
Ivanka Trump also tweeted about Kanye West’s praise for her father on Wednesday too.
First daughter and White House aide Ivanka Trump also tweeted about Kanye West showing support for her father
Less than an hour later, West tweeted that his wife Kim Kardashian had called him about the Trump tweet
Kardashian (pictured with West in a recent family photo) was a vocal supporter of Clinton during the 2016 presidential election campaign
Last year West shared with a Californian concert audience that he would have voted for Trump
West first revealed his support for Trump shortly after the November 2016 election, when he told a California concert audience he would have voted for the Republican.
‘I told y’all I didn’t vote, right? But if I would’ve voted, I would’ve voted for Trump,’ he said.
‘We live in a racist country. That is a fact. This world is racist, OK? Let’s stop being distracted to focus on that as much.’
But in a separate tweet on Wednesday, Kanye wrote that he loved also Clinton, who Kardashian publicly supported in the 2016 presidential election.
‘If your friend jumps off the bridge you don’t have to do the same,’ he began. ‘Ye being Ye is a fight for you to be you.’
‘I told y’all I didn’t vote, right? But if I would’ve voted, I would’ve voted for Trump,’ he told the crowd shortly after the November 2016 election
West continued to discuss free thought, saying he loves when ‘people have their own ideas’
‘For people in my life the idea of Trump is pretty much a 50 50 split but I don’t tell a Hillary supporter not to support Hillary I love Hillary too.’
The rapper continued to discuss free thought, saying he loves when ‘people have their own ideas’.
‘You don’t have to be allowed anymore. Just be. Love who you want to love. That’s free thought,’ he wrote.
‘I’m not even political. I’m not a democrat or a republican.’