Former US President Donald Trump said on Monday, during an interview with online streamer Adin Ross, that rapper Kanye West, who has come under fire for antisemitic remarks, is a “really nice guy” who is “complicated” but has “a good heart”.
Trump was criticized in 2022 for having dinner with West, who now calls himself Ye, and white supremacist Nick Fuentes despite their antisemitic comments.
In the interview with Ross, Trump said of West, “He’s very complicated” and added that the rapper “can get himself into trouble” along with “some other people.”
“But, you know, he’s got a good heart,” Trump said. “He does, he does, but he’s complicated, Kanye.”
West caused outrage in 2022 after saying during an interview that the Abraham Accords between Israel, the UAE, and Bahrain were signed because former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, who is also Trump’s son-in-law, wanted to "make money" from the deal.
He later threatened to go "death con 3 on the Jews" in an apparent antisemitic Twitter rant. West followed this up by claiming that he can't be antisemitic "because black people are actually Jew."
West’s antisemitic comments caused a host of companies to cut ties with him, including Adidas, the Creative Artists Agency, Foot Locker and Apple Music.
West has since seemingly backtracked his comments, citing actor Jonah Hill’s acting in the 2012 movie “21 Jump Street”.
This past December, the rapper published a Hebrew-language post on Instagram in which he apologized to the Jewish community for the various antisemitic statements he had made.