Kanye West met US president elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower on Tuesday morning, with Trump telling reporters they spoke about "life".
The rapper arrived at 9.13am and then he and the president-elect came back down around 9.50am and posed for photos in front of the waiting media.
Mr Trump did not answer questions about whether West would perform at his inauguration, the president-elect has reportedly been struggling to find any willing high-profile artists, and said the two had been friends a “long time”.
West said he “just wanted to take a picture” and ignored reporters’ other questions. Pool reporter Tal Kopan posted a video of the interaction on Instagram:
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At a concert in San Jose on November 17th , West said that if he had voted in the presidential election, which he had not ,he would have backed Trump.
“I would’ve voted on Trump,” said West, while many in the audience booed.
“I don’t think his approach was just entertaining, because that trivializes it, I actually think his approach was absolutely genius because it f***ing worked,” said West.
According to one concert goer, West also said that Trump’s election campaign “inspired racists to reveal themselves”. “This is the beginning,” West said, according to one attendee, adding: “Neither candidate would fix racism in this country.”
Just three days later, West checked into the UCLA Medical Center suffering from exhaustion and lack of sleep, and spent a week there receiving mental health treatment.
His wife, Kim Kardashian, who has made no public appearances since a robbery in Paris in October, where she was tied up and robbed of millions of dollars’ worth of jewellery, was not with him for his arrival at Trump Tower. His entourage included a videographer.
West speaks often about politics and race relations, and has claimed that he would run for president in 2020, first at the Video Music Awards in 2015, then in his lyrics for Facts on his Life of Pablo album: “2020 I’ma run the whole election.”
Guardian News and Media