*Kanye West made his scheduled return to “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last night and spoke about a wide range of topics – from his mental health, to his wife Kim Kardashian getting political, to his devotion to Donald Trump.
A question during the latter subject, however, saw the normally loquacious emcee go silent.
First, West defended his love of the president. “Just as a musician, African American, everyone around me tried to pick my candidate for me and then told me that I couldn’t say that I like Trump,” he said. The rapper explained that there’s this idea out there that “blacks can only be Democrats” and he added that as a result of his hospitalization in 2016 he “lost his confidence” and it took him a year and a half to say what he truly felt. “If I’m afraid to be me, then I’m not Ye, that’s what makes me Ye. I enjoy when people are mad at me about certain things.”
When Kimmel brought up Kanye’s infamous declaration, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” and asked the rapper, “What makes you think that Donald Trump does,” West appeared stumped. He went silent and Jimmy had to go to commercial.
Watch below at the 11:07 mark:
Earlier in the interview, Kimmel asked West what projects he had in store. “Space Force?” Kimmel wondered, “You should design the uniforms for the Space Force. Would you do that if the president asked you?”
“I’m into designing,” West said, smiling.
Kimmel then noted that West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, had appeared on the show the previous week and had recently traveled to Washington with a direct request for Trump to pardon Alice Marie Johnson, who had been serving a life sentence for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense. She was subsequently granted clemency by Trump. “Did you discuss that with her before she did it?” Kimmel asked.
“Well she’s super passionate about it, and it was amazing for her to see that dream come true,” West said of his wife.
“Were you ever concerned about her being alone in the Oval Office with President Trump?” Kimmel then asked. “Well, he is a player,” West joked.
Kimmel also asked West about his bipolar diagnosis, and if he feels it’s part of what makes him “brilliant.” West replied, “Yeah. It’s not an opposite, it drives more of how you really feel. It’s important for us to have open conversations about mental health especially with me being black, because we never had therapists in the black community.”
Last night’s episode also featured a hip-hop edition of Kimmel’s “Mean Tweets” segment featuring Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, Big Sean, Rae Sremmurd, DJ Khaled, Eve, Remy Ma and more.
Watch Kanye West’s entire interview and the Mean Tweets segment below:
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