Kanye West professes ‘love’ for Donald Trump, criticizes Obama: radio host

Rapper Kanye West this weekend professed his “love” for President Trump and complained that he “couldn’t get anything done” with former President Obama, according to a radio host who interviewed West.

The interview with Hot 97 host Ebro Darden came after West expressed his unexpected support for conservative activist and Black Lives Matter critic Candace Owens on Twitter.

“I love the way Candace Owens thinks,” West tweeted Saturday. The post followed a lengthy string of pseduo-philisophical one-liners and platitudes, including “all you have to be is yourself” and “images are limitless and words aren’t.”

Owens, who is black, has been criticized for her support of President Donald Trump and for her conservative political thoughts.

West took on groupthink and identity politics the next day, adding, “[W]e have freedom of speech but not freedom of thought.”

According to Darden, who recounted his conversation with the famed rapper on Monday’s “Ebro in the Morning” broadcast, West said he liked Owens because “she’s challenging conventional black thought.”

He also expressed love for Trump, Darden said, explaining that he had “reached out to Obama for years and couldn’t get anything done, but Trump gave me a meeting.”

Obama famously called West a “jackass” during a taping of an interview, and reportedly doubled down on that epithet later.

“[West] said, ‘I do love Donald Trump,'” Darden said.

The rapper reportedly told Darden his goal was to “deprogram” people, according to Vulture.

On Sunday, singer Shania Twain apologized for saying she would have voted for Trump in 2016 after a significant social media backlash.

Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld said West’s comments are significant not because he endorsed any conservative views, but because he demonstrated a tolerance for hearing them.

“He challenged the mob,” Gutfeld said. “Their goal is to stigmatize. Smears always shut down debate. … There’s nothing scarier to a leftist than a free thinker.”

The Atlanta-born rapper has a history of provocative, unexpected statements.

West famously said that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” in the wake of 2005’s devastating Hurricane Katrina.

In 2016, West told a California crowd at a concert that he would have voted for Trump.

“I said something that was kind of politically correct. I told y’all I didn’t vote, right? What I didn’t tell you … If I were to have voted I would have voted on Trump,” West said.

“That don’t mean that I don’t think that Black Lives Matter, that I don’t mean that I don’t think I believe in women’s rights … because that was the guy I would’ve voted for.”

Despite not being well-received, the rapper continued to tell his fans to “stop talking about race so much.”

West’s history of independent-minded comments drew the attention of Infowars host Alex Jones this week, who tweeted Monday that he admired West and wants him to come on his show.