Kanye West’s yo-yo relationship with Donald Trump: from ‘disgusting’ to ‘very cool’ to rapper’s presidential bid
- West’s declaration that he would run for US president this year puts him up against a man he once said was his ‘brother’
- The pair appeared good friends during meetings in 2018, but West recently said he doesn’t support Trump any more and he’s ‘taking the red hat off’
Rapper and newly minted billionaire Kanye West celebrated the Fourth of July by tweeting out his 2020 bid for US president. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the rapper’s wife Kim Kardashian West each sent support tweets.
While the feasibility of this bid is up for debate, West has enjoyed a very public friendship with the current occupant of the White House over the years.
But West told Forbes this month that US President Donald Trump was losing his support because “it looks like one big mess”, specifically alluding to reports of Trump hiding inside a bunker during the Black Lives Matter protests in May. Trump has maintained that he was inspecting the bunker.
Here’s a look inside West and Trump’s up-and-down relationship over the years.
In 2009, West interrupted Taylor Swift’s MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) acceptance speech. Trump called the move “disgusting”.
Swift beat Beyoncé to win an award for You Belong With Me in the category for best female video. Unhappy with the result, West went onstage and said, “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ll let you finish, but Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!” The outburst left both Swift and the audience perplexed.