Kanye West: I Would’ve Voted for Donald Trump
Kanye West drew boos Thursday during a concert in San Jose, California, after telling the audience that, while he didn’t vote in the 2016 presidential election, he “would’ve voted for Trump.”
The rapper reportedly stopped the concert and delivered a 25-minute political rant, shocking the crowd with his endorsement of the Republican president-elect. West admitted “there’s things [he] liked about Trump’s campaign … There’s methods, non-political methods to speaking, that I like – that I feel were very futuristic. That style and that method of communication has proven that it can be a politically correct way of communication. And I fuck with that.”
West, who previously praised Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, vented about how he’d been encouraged not to share his political opinions. “I hate the fact that because I’m a celebrity, everybody told me not to say that I loved the debates,” he said. I loved [Trump’s] approach.”
Kanye just said if he had voted (which he didn’t) he would’ve voted Trump. pic.twitter.com/g2HyFz6KPD
— Justin Yang (@justin_yang) November 18, 2016
“[Voting for Trump] don’t mean that I don’t think that black lives matter; that don’t mean I don’t believe in women’s rights; that don’t mean that I don’t believe in gay marriage,” he continued, adding, “This world is racist, OK? Let’s stop being distracted to focus on that as much. It’s just a fucking fact: We are a racist fucking country, period.”
Kanye West tonight speaking on racism in America. “Specifically to black people, stop talking about race so much.” pic.twitter.com/HTWlJgdq7E
— Brandon E. Patterson (@myblackmindd) November 18, 2016
While he predicted the Trump comments might generate a backlash (“I guess we’re just not gonna sell out the rest of the tour now”), West also tried to unite the audience by outlining ideas for his own.
“I got some ideas about the way we should connect our ideas,” he said. “And we should use opposite parties that the Republicans and the Democrats – that everyone that ran that had an idea that people agreed with should be the collective ideas that are used to the run the country.”