Kanye West had a rare moment of silence when Jimmy Kimmel grilled him about his support of Donald Trump on Thursday night.
The rapper appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," where he talked about everything from POTUS to his porn habits in a 20-minute interview that was all over the place.
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View StoryTrump came up near the top of the conversation, as Kimmel asked whether West was ever "concerned" about his wife, Kim Kardashian, being alone with him in the Oval Office. Kanye's response: "Well, he is a player."
West was then asked if he thinks Trump is a good president
"It's funny, in this world that we live in, there's two main motivating forces -- and I tweet about it all the time -- it's love or fear, and you can't explain love," Kanye answered. "My cousin is locked up for murder, and I love him and so he did a bad thing, but I still love him."
"And just as a musician, African-American guy out in Hollywood, all these different things, everyone around me tried to pick my candidate for me and then told me every time I said I liked Trump that I couldn't say it out loud or my career would be over, I'd get kicked out the black community, because blacks, we're supposed to have a monolithic thought, we can only be Democrats," he continued.
Bringing up his 2016 hospitalization, he said that when he came out he "didn't have the confidence" to take on the "possible backlash" for supporting Trump by sporting a MAGA hat.
"It took me a year and a half to have the confidence to stand up and put on the hat, no matter what the consequences were and what it represented to me –- it's not about policies 'cause I'm not a politician like that -- but it represented overcoming fear and doing what you felt no matter what anyone said and saying you can't bully me, liberals can't bully me, news can't bully me, the hip-hop community, they can't bully me," he went on. "Because at that point, if I'm afraid to be me, I'm no longer 'Ye. That's what makes 'Ye. And I actually quite enjoy when people actually are mad at me about certain things."
He later went on to say that he hoped more people approached Trump with "love" and not hatred. And what Kimmel said next left West speechless.
"I think that's a beautiful thought, but in literal terms, there are literally families being torn apart as a result of what this president is doing," said Kimmel. "I think that we cannot forget that whether we like his personality or not, his actions are really what matter. You've so famously and so powerfully said, 'George Bush doesn't care about black people,' it makes me wonder what makes you think that Donald Trump does, or any people at all?"
As he paused to think of the correct response, Kimmel interrupted, saying, "Why don't we take a break." When they returned, they didn't address the question again.
The moment was the talk of Twitter last night and this morning, with people like "Orange Is the New Black" star Danielle Brooks and Charlamagne Tha God both getting in on the conversation. See some of the responses below, as some slammed Kanye while others criticized Kimmel for not giving him enough time to respond.
Thank you @jimmykimmel for saying what I was hoping you would!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You got him thinking!
@thedanieb
I asked Kanye the exact same question about Trump not caring about black people and he didn't answer when I asked him either.
@cthagod
Kimmel: “You famously said George Bush doesn't care about Black people. It makes me wonder what makes you think Donald Trump does, or any people at all?”
@Phil_Lewis_
Kanye: “........” pic.twitter.com/xnGFTUMrU8
Jimmy Kimmel asks Kanye West to explain his alignment with Donald Trump after famously saying “George Bush doesn't care about black people” because Trump is far worse...
@FredTJoseph
Kanye has no answer.pic.twitter.com/BQqNn3NQSM
Kanye West doesn't care about black people. https://t.co/YI2m4fhU1E
@keithboykin
Jimmy Kimmel: You saying Bush doesn't care about black people makes me wonder how can u say, based on what Trump is doing, that he cares about black people at all?
@dew_u
Kanye: pic.twitter.com/eCDkQXYGVs
Jimmy Kimmel calls out @kanyewest about his Bush comment. Asks Kanye about his support of @realDonaldTrump and THIS is what happened. (Also shame on Kimmel for not letting Kanye even respond. Goes right to commercial) pic.twitter.com/saOTFsDvHc
@TheGunzShow
Jimmy Kimmel was able to get Kanye West to open up and tell America why he loves Trump so much. Kanye West was speechless... literally! pic.twitter.com/EEW95FrCyt
@EdKrassen
jimmy kimmel just fucking flamed kanye on live TV and it cut to complete silence from ye for like a solid 7 seconds
@TheAgeOfThanos
Later in the show, West talked about working on dresses with daughter North and whether being a father to daughters has changed how he looks at women.
Kanye's very blunt answer: "Nah, I still look at PornHub." He added that he's into "a lot of black on white, obviously," which mirrors his "own reality."
He also stressed the importance of talking about mental health, "especially with me being black, because we never had therapists in the black community." He continued, "We never approach taking medication. And I think it's good when I had my first complete blackout at age 5, my mom didn't fully medicate me because I might have never been 'Ye."
"I knew I wanted to stay in a calm state because by the time I got to TMZ, I was ramped up," he went on. "So what was awesome was that the world got to really experience someone in a ramped up state. There some cases of bipolar where people go low, I'm one that goes high, like Michelle Obama says."