Kanye West appeared on Thursday’s edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight where he explained his belief in the pro-life cause, spoke about his faith, and opined on various other topics, including his personal life — which he says has seen massive consequences as a result of his political activism.
Carlson introduced the music icon, who legally changed his name to Ye last year, by declaring that while West has been portrayed as mentally unstable, he had “rarely heard a man speak so honestly and movingly about what he believes.”
“Is West crazy?” asked Carlson rhetorically. “You can judge for yourself.”
The interview opened with the host asking his guest about a photograph of an ultrasound he was wearing around his neck. “It just represents life — I’m pro-life,” replied West, who went on to cite the fact that “there’s more black babies being aborted than born in New York City.” When Carlson inquired about when Ye had begun to feel this way, West said that it was “when Trump was running for office and I liked him.”
“Every single person in Hollywood, from my ex-wife, to my mother-in-law, to my manager at that time, to, you know, my so-called friends/handlers around me, told me like if I said that I like Trump that my career will be over, that my life would be over. They said stuff like people get killed for wearing a [MAGA] hat like that,” he continued.
The proximate reason for the interview was West’s donning of a “White Lives Matter” shirt at a Paris Fashion Week presentation on Monday. About the wardrobe choice, which drew substantial criticism, West said, “I thought the shirt was a funny shirt. I thought the idea of me wearing it was funny,” but also remarked that he agreed with his father, who in a text message told him he was “just a black man stating the obvious.”
West said that his mother had separated him from his father in part over political disagreements when he was a child, at the urging of her friends — his father was conservative while his mother was liberal — and drew a comparison to his own relationship with his ex-wife.
“Kim [Kardashian] is a Christian, but she has people who want her to go to Interview magazine and put her a** out while she’s a 40-something-year-old, multibillionaire with four black children,” complained the music star.
Later in the interview, West said that Kardashian had been close to Bill and Hillary Clinton, and that they had used her to try to manipulate him.
“I didn’t know how close my own wife was to the Clintons,” said West, before Carlson interjected to ask how close to the Clintons she was.
“I mean, cellphone away, or, like, ‘Hey, tell Ye to say this’ away,” answered West, who admitted to sometimes feeling like he was being manipulated when Kardashian asked things of him at the Clintons’ and others’ behest.
In another notable moment, West was highly critical of the Kushner family. While Jared Kushner is married to Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and worked in the Trump White House, his brother, Joshua, owns part of Kardashian’s Skims clothing line, which West claimed to have helped develop. Kushner’s role in the endeavor, according to West, left him with the impression that “what they’re [the Kushner family] about is making money. I don’t think that they have the ability to make anything on their own. They’re born into money.”
Explaining his own affinity for Trump, West argued that “a lot of times the most fake people, their job is talking and making people feel comfortable . . . and the realest people are going to make you feel uncomfortable.” However, he also critiqued the former president for his approach to the black community, implying that he had used West to boost his approval ratings.
“For older white people, they’re quick to classify a black person only by the fact that we’re black,” submitted West. “Even Trump, a person that’s, you know, we’d consider to be a friend of mine . . . one of the things he said to me is, ‘You know, Kanye, you’re my friend. When you came to the White House, my black approval rating went up 40 percent.'”
The second half of Carlson’s interview with West is set to air on Friday night.