The usually verbose Kanye West was at a loss for words when Jimmy Kimmel asked him Thursday night about his support for President Trump – and why he thought the president cared about African-Americans.
During a wide-ranging interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” the host challenged Yeezy on his support for Trump in light of the rapper’s stand against former President George W. Bush after Hurricane Katrina.
“There are families being torn apart at the border of this country,” Kimmel said. “Whether we like his personality or not, his actions are what matter. You so famously, and so powerfully said, ‘George Bush doesn’t care about black people.’ What makes you think that Donald Trump does — or any people at all?”
The 41-year-old hip-hop star said nothing as he glanced upward, arms folded, to nervous laughter from the audience.
“Why don’t we take a break,” Kimmel finally said.
West — who has called the president his “brother” and said they shared the same “dragon energy” — insisted that he didn’t want to take the predictable route in backing a candidate.
“As a musician, African-American … everyone around me tried to pick my candidate for me,” he said, suggesting there was a perception that “blacks can only be Democrats.”
“When I see people just even like go at the president, it’s like, ‘Why not try love?’ … One by one by one, we can diffuse this nuclear bomb of hate of society by thinking of everyone as our family and how we treat our kids,” he said.
“You know, it’s funny, in this world that we live in there’s two main motivating forces. I tweet about it all the time: love and fear. You can’t explain love,” he said.
“My cousin is locked up for murder. I love him, he still did a bad thing but I still love him. As a musician, an African-American guy on Hollywood, all these different things, everyone around me tried to pick my candidate for me,” West said.
“And they told me every time I said I liked Trump I couldn’t say it out loud or my career would be over, I’d get kicked out of the black community because blacks are only supposed to have a monolithic thought, we can only be Democrats.”
The “Fade” rapper also shared his thoughts on his wife Kim Kardashian‘s visit to the White House, where she lobbied Trump to grant a pardon to Alice Jonhson, a 62-year-old grandmother who spent 22 years in the slammer.
“She’s super passionate about it and it was amazing for her to see that dream come true,” he told Kimmel, who then asked if he was ever worried about Kardashian West being in the Oval Office alone with Trump.
West laughed and said: “Well, he is a player.”