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Music

25th Apr 2018

Kanye West said he supported Donald Trump on Twitter and Trump has responded

They make an odd couple

Wayne Farry

The rapper has lost 9 million followers thanks to his endorsement.

When you think of Donald Trump’s supporters you may immediately think – rightly or wrongly – of white, working class Americans who feel disillusioned with a world they feel has left them behind without remorse.

You generally don’t think of them as billionaire rap moguls who are the avant-garde of fashion. You generally don’t think about someone like Kanye West.

Kanye has made a triumphant and incredibly weird return to Twitter in recent weeks, with many tweets which have left his devoted followers struggling to justify certain remarks he has made.

That justification has likely become a whole lot more difficult with the rapper’s announcement that he’s a pretty big fan of Donald Trump, a figure who has been widely reviled by much of the African-American community throughout his short time as US president.

In a series of tweets, Kanye revealed that while he doesn’t agree with everything Trump says, he is still his “brother”.

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/989179757651574784

What followed was an exercise in damage limitation without admitting that you have done anything messed up, Kanye style.

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/989192498307219456

The music visionary then seemed to think “fuck this” and opted to go all in once again.

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/989227154993963009

This bizarre little love-in then took a stranger turn as Trump thanked Kanye, a message which Kanye then proudly shared himself.

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/989232654707912704

All in all, a very weird exchange. Where does this leave Kanye? It’s hard to tell. He remains a hugely talented musician but he does appear to be supporting a man with questionable policies and a history of demonising people of colour.

Maybe he’s been red-pilled after months of browsing sub-reddits, maybe he’s always been a closet Republican, or maybe he just looks at Trump and sees a blueprint for his next career move. Only time will tell, but his dramatic loss of followers suggests that he might come out swinging for Hillary by the morning.

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/989228791976284160

It’s been a wild ride since Kanye reactivated his Twitter. He started strong, accusing Nike of copying a Yeezys design before progressing to a stream of consciousness that may now form the basis of a philosophical text.

There’s some bangers in there that scream the ‘go your own way and let tongues wag’ mentality the rapper embodies.

Ass well as a ‘custom’ designer tattoo that was actually just copy and pasted off the internet.

Oh yeah, and he just announced two new albums.