Kanye West tones down Trump praise after Kim Kardashian calls
Kanye West is tempering his declaration of love for President Trump after his wife, Kim Kardashian West, asked him to make it clear that he does not agree with everything Mr. Trump does. West initially tweeted that Mr. Trump is his "brother" and that they are both "dragon energy." (Neither West nor Mr. Trump were born in the year of the dragon.)
On Wednesday, West, who seems to be live-tweeting his stream of consciousness, wrote, "You don't have to agree with trump but the mob can't make me not love him. We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don't agree with everything anyone does. That's what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought."
Mr. Trump responded, "Thank you Kanye, very cool!" though he made no mention of dragon energy or brotherhood.
Kanye West also offered some "love" on Twitter for former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, writing, "For people In my life the idea of Trump is pretty much a 50 50 split but I don't tell a Hillary supporter not to support Hillary I love Hillary too." He claimed that he is "not political" and is tweeting "in love not fear."
About an hour later, he wrote that Kardashian West called him to clarify his comments about Trump. He tweeted, "my wife just called me and she wanted me to make this clear to everyone. I don't agree with everything Trump does. I don't agree 100% with anyone but myself."
He continued to tweet, writing about venture capitalism and meeting Google founder Larry Page. Then he tweeted photos of a signed "Make America Great Again" hat and a selfie wearing a MAGA hat.
There was some backlash to West's tweetstorm Wednesday.
"Kanye doesn't care about black people," comedia Akilah Hughes wrote on Twitter, paraphrasing West's famous comments about former President George W. Bush.
A growing list of celebrities appear to have unfollowed West on Twitter, as noted by some Twitter users:
In 2016, Mr. Trump and West had a meeting at Trump Tower, where Mr. Trump called West a "good man."
"Just friends, just friends," he said. "He's a good man. Long time. Friends for a long time."
Asked what they had discussed, Mr. Trump replied: "Life. We discussed life."
When reporters began directing questions at West, he said: "I'm just here to take a picture right now," giving them a thumbs-up.
But in February of last year, West deleted all of his tweets supporting Mr. Trump.
Recently, West announced two albums, including one with Kid Cudi.