Trump Praises Kanye West Amid Backlash Over Anti-Semitic Comments

Former President Donald Trump and the artist formerly known as Kanye West have both come under fire for anti-Semitic remarks, and now Trump is singing Ye’s praises.

In a sitdown with right-wing news host Larry O’Connor, Trump praised the business mogul but failed to condemn his derisive comments. 

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

Trump said that Ye was great for the MAGA movement and that they have always gotten along, despite the rapper’s words about Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Ye claimed Kushner only brokered the Abraham Accord peace deal for financially beneficial reasons. 

“He was great, really, to MAGA, to the MAGA movement, which was very impressive,” Trump told O’Connor. “I’ve always gotten along with him.”

Ye saw both his Instagram and Twitter accounts suspended for anti-Semitic comments, vowing to go “death con 3” on Jewish people in a tweet. He has subsequently spoken out against “the Jewish media” in several interviews and made claims that his “life was threatened by my Jewish managers, by my Jewish lawyer, by my Jewish accountant” in an interview with Chris Cuomo. 

On Sunday, Trump made his own anti-Semitic comments on his Truth Social platform. He wrote that Jewish people “needed to get their act together” and show appreciation for Israel “before it’s too late.” He also claimed that no president has done more for the country than him. 

The Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Oren Segal slammed the comments, saying that the sense of safety Jewish people feel in the United States has been “shattered.”

“Jews generally feel safe in the United States despite the rise in antisemitism online and on the ground,” Segal said. “There have been worse places even in the world today.”

But that feeling of safety is waning. Segal explains there’s a difference when the comments come from a fringe extremist group versus a popular entertainment figure and a former president. It’s important for others to speak out against antisemitism, Segal adds.