‘He was great to me’: Trump speaks out in support of Kanye West amid tirades

Former US president Donald Trump appeared to defend rapper Kanye West on Monday after the latter’s recent controversial comments on social media, deemed by many Jewish groups antisemitic.

In an interview with Trump, Salem News reporter Larry O’Connor asked the former president where he stood in regard to West’s recent controversy, which included a personal accusation against former White House senior adviser, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

In a recent interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, West accused Kushner of brokering the 2020 Abraham Accords peace agreements between Israel and several Arab nations in order “to make money.”

“He’s been saying some really offensive things lately about your own son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and about Jewish people. Jewish Americans writ large. Could you react to that? Because is this the guy that you knew?” O’Connor asked the former president.

Trump replied by saying he hadn’t seen West’s recent comments on social media but said he did watch the Fox News interview.

Trump said West, who now goes by the name Ye, was always “really nice” to him.

“Beyond anybody, he was. He was great to me,” Trump said.

“And he was great, really, to MAGA, to the MAGA movement, which was very impressive. I was, you know, not surprised. I always got along with him. I liked him. I’ve always gotten along with him,” Trump continued.

“So I don’t really know what statements he made. Sometimes he’ll make a statement and a lot of people will think it’s worse [than] he means it to be. But I think that, you know, I was certainly very, you know, what I’m talking about. He was really high on a guy named Donald Trump,” he said.

In one of his first tweets in two years, West wrote earlier this month: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti-Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.” That tweet was later removed by Twitter.

He’s since doubled down on his attack, saying he was “used to being screwed by the Jewish media,” that “the Jewish media blocked me out” and that “Jewish people have owned the Black voice.”

Trump himself has also faced criticism from Jewish groups recently after urging Jews to “get their act together” and accusing them of not being appreciative enough of his support for Israel, in remarks posted to his social media platform Truth Social.

Trump has frequently castigated US Jews for their perceived lack of gratitude and support and often conflated Israeli interests with those of American Jews.

While many US Jews are generally supportive of Israel, they have consistently rejected accusations of dual loyalty toward the Jewish state, typically seen as an antisemitic canard.