Update 11/27: Trump later denied Kanye’s comments, saying “So I help a seriously troubled man, who just happens to be black, Ye (Kanye West), who has been decimated in his business and virtually everything else, and who has always been good to me, by allowing his request for a meeting at Mar-a-Lago, alone, so that I can give him very much needed “advice.” He shows up with 3 people, two of which I didn’t know, the other a political person who I haven’t seen in years. I told him don’t run for office, a total waste of time, can’t win. Fake News went CRAZY!” on TruthSocial
Kanye West plans on running for president again in 2024, with former Breitbart writer and right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos apparently working on his campaign.
And so, as part of that campaign, he just traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump and ask the former President to be his running mate, an offer that Trump reportedly refused.
Watch Kanye describe the meeting here:
#YE24 pic.twitter.com/DyIhMU5By6
— ye (@kanyewest) November 25, 2022
According to Kanye, Trump did not like the idea of being Kanye’s running mate, yelling at him over the offer. Kanye didn’t appear particularly fazed by that, asking “has that ever worked for anybody?”
But while Trump was not impressed with Kanye’s offer, he was reportedly a fan of Nick Fuentes, a far-right commentator who has built a substantial following among right-wing young men and has been canceled by most platforms over his controversial views.
Kanye claims, in the video, that Trump was “really impressed with Nick Fuentes” and, during the meeting, was gushing over Fuentes being a “loyalist.”
On the topic of loyalists, Kanye claims he pressed Trump on why he didn’t pardon the January 6th protesters that were locked up following the trespass at the Capitol but did not get a straight answer about that issue from the former president, who instead monologued about his criminal justice reform campaign and a woman freed during it.
While some, particularly the Online Right, were excited with the news that Trump had met with Fuentes and liked him, others were less sure that the supposed meeting (one that Trump hasn’t confirmed even happen or spoken about) was a good idea.
RedState, for example, wrote that:
I understand some are going to call this 56D chess and offer assurances that Trump knows what he’s doing, but I don’t buy it. I think the former president’s thirst to be around famous people once again became a liability here. The easiest thing in the world would have been to tell Kanye and Fuentes to kick rocks and head back to the airport. Instead, there is now an alleged contact point between Trump and Fuentes, a racist clown who was present at the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.
Besides, Kanye himself isn’t worthy of being given the time of day either. The guy has become a disciple of anti-Semitic, far-left black nationalism that teaches black people are the “real” Hebrews. Trump should be running as far away from that garbage as he can, and he missed a golden opportunity to publicly oppose it. Instead, it’ll now be used as evidence for the next two years.
The Kanye video about the meeting caused chaos on Twitter, with accounts freaking out about the supposed meeting.
The Israel Advocacy Movement, for example, said:
The guys Kanye’s praising are: Nick Fuentes: A Holocaust-denying white supremacist leader who claims LGBT rights are a Jewish subversion. Milo (dude with the Hitler youth haircut): Banned from Paypal for harassing a Jew with a Nazi salute (14.88)
An anonymous account said:
As an orthodox Jewish Rabbi and avid fan of Kanye West for over a decade, I sadly must report than I am NO LONGER a supporter of Kanye. His antisemitic actions this month sicken me, and because of them, I will NEVER listen to one of his songs again. Bye, Ye. You’ve lost a fan.
A conservative account, on the other hand, said “I SUPPORT YE & NICK FUENTES“.
Another account attacked the emphasis placed on religion, saying:
“we need to demand that you hold all policies directly to the Bible” 👎
the church and the gov’t are two rightfully separate entities. There should be 0 religious influence on any public policy, and I say this as a Catholic conservative.
But that led to a fight when another account responded, saying “cope. stop putting politics over Christ. we need a drastic change in this country. only Jesus can get us there.”
So, as usual, a collection of controversial figures caused outrage and fighting on the internet.
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