If there is anything that can get Kanye West to let up on his unabashed “love” for Donald Trump, it might be his wife Kim Kardashian West.
In the middle of a never-ending tweetstorm about the “dragon energy” he shares with the president Wednesday afternoon, West shared this update with his fans and followers: “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.”
It was the surest sign yet that the people in his life are worried about what this new conservative streak might do for his brand and reputation.
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The unlikely bromance between West and Trump dates all the way back to election night 2016, but it has been kicked into high gear this month as the rapper and fashion icon has made a triumphant return to the president’s preferred communications medium.
In dozens of fire-and-laugh-crying-emoji-filled tweets starting Wednesday morning, West announced that he no longer has a manager (“I can’t be managed”) and is planning to hire 160 people for his Yeezy brand before the end of this year. He also went after People magazine for running an anonymously sourced article about his “explosive” fights with wife Kim and mother-in-law Kris Jenner.
“People magazine. Watch how you speak my name,” he tweeted. “You would love a pair of Yeezys. Don't play yourself.”
Jenner also disputed the article Tuesday night.
But the fact that Kanye is admitting Kim—a proud Hillary Clinton supporter in 2016—is calling him concerned means there is at least some kernel of truth to the piece, which claimed everyone around him is “really, really worried.”
The rest of West’s tweetstorm included predictions that he will be president someday (“we’ll have to change the name of the plane from Air Force one to Yeezy force one”) and this statement about Trump that likely prompted the call from Kim.
“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,” West tweeted, insisting that he “loves” Hillary Clinton as well and is definitely not in the “sunken place,” despite what many of his fans have come to believe.
“Do this look like the sunken place?” he asked, drawing yet another joking rebuke from his wife for sharing pictures of their private home. Sort of.
Moments later, West had tweeted out a photo of himself wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat next to Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal Music and Lyor Cohen, the former head of Def Jam and current Global Head of Music at YouTube, who appeared to be throwing up the alt-right Pepe the Frog hand sign.
“I went to listen to music and see Kanye. He is someone I care about. I don't abandon people,” Cohen told The Daily Beast in a statement Wednesday evening. “With great music comes great pain and stress. The music is incredible!” According to a YouTube spokesperson, “The hand gesture made by Lyor Cohen is representative of the company he founded, 300 Entertainment and absolutely nothing more.”
And while White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied that the two men had been in touch during Wednesday’s briefing, President Trump finally tweeted back at West, adding, “very cool!”
Very cool, indeed.
