Trump quips Kanye West ‘seriously troubled man, who happens to be black’ amid fallout

During a recent dinner at the former US President Donald Trump's Florida estate Mar a Lago, rapper Ye West formerly known as Kanye claimed that he drew criticism from Trump who allegedly "screamed at him" and other Republicans for launching a 2024 presidential bid. Explaining the controversy surrounding his and Ye's private interaction, Trump on Sunday slammed Kanye West as a “seriously troubled man” who "just happens to be black" amid fallout over dinner chitchat. Trump wrote on his non-censored social media app Truth Social, that he was only giving Ye "advice" that he had sought but the mainstream American media spun the narrative. 

“So I help a seriously troubled man [Kanye West], who just happens to be black, Ye, who has been decimated in his business and virtually everything else, and who has always been good to me, by allowing his request for a meeting at Mar-a-Lago, alone, so that I can give him very much needed advice," Donald Trump explained.

Trump detailed the situation he had had with the American rapper, saying that Ye had actually shown up "with 3 people, two of which I didn’t know, the other a political person who I haven’t seen in years." "I told him don’t run for office, a total waste of time, can’t win. Fake News went CRAZY!" Trump, in a lengthy statement, said lambasting the American press. The former Republican leader is widely associated with the term "fake news" that he coined during his tenure to tarnish the mainstream newspapers for allegedly slandering his reputation. 

The "two other people" the former leader of the US was referring to were the right-wing political commentator Nick Fuentes, who was seen with Ye at Miami’s airport, and his former Florida campaign director Karen Giorno. Ye had described Fuentes as a "Trump loyalist" in a presidential campaign video that he released on November 25. “First time at Mar-a-Lago,” the rapper tweeted. “Rain and traffic. Can’t believe I kept President Trump waiting. And I had on jeans. Yikes.” Fuentes is widely rebuked for his antisemitic views and is dubbed as a white supremacist and Holocaust denier by critics. 

Ye 'decimated in his business and virtually everything else': Trump

Trump on Sunday refuted Ye's claims that he "yelled" at him for being his running mate as he claimed in his video titled "Mar-a-Lago Debrief." He noted that he had met with West in order to “help” him as he’s “been decimated in his business and virtually everything else." West “has always been good to me," the former US president continued. In a video posted after the Mar-a-Lago dinner, Ye said that Trump got mad at him after he told the former president that he will be his running mate in 2024. The rapper claimed that Trump was, in fact, “really impressed with Nick Fuentes.” Trump wrote on Truth Social that he “didn’t know” Fuentes and that he attended the dinner with Ye without his knowledge. 

Later, Ye launched a poll, asking his fans: “What do you guys think his response was when I asked him to be my running mate in 2024?” Ye claimed that his campaign video in proposition was “lower on the list of things that caught [Trump] off guard.” "Trump asked me to be the vice president," he claimed. The hip-hop artist went on to add that the Republican leader was “most perturbed” by “the fact that I walked in with intelligence.” Trump, meanwhile defended the conversation, saying he intended to “give him very much needed ‘advice,’” because West asked to talk to him alone. Ye made a visit to the White House in October 2018 to meet the then-POTUS Trump.