Kanye West says he will vote for Trump again in 2020: ‘Real estate is better now than when Obama was in office'
Kanye West, in a recent interview, reiterated his support for President Donald Trump, saying that he plans to vote for the Republican again in the 2020 presidential election in November. The 42-year-old rapper made the statement in an interview for his GQ May 2020 cover story and added that he was not going to heed to anyone who suggests his career will be over if he supports Trump.
"I’m definitely voting this time. And we know who I’m voting on," he said. "And I’m not going to be told by the people around me and the people that have their agenda that my career is going to be over. Because guess what: I’m still here! Jesus Is King was No. 1! I was told my career would end if I wasn’t with her [Hillary Clinton]. What kind of campaign is that, anyway? That’s like if [Barack] Obama‘s campaign was ‘I’m with black.’ What’s the point of being a celebrity if you can’t have an opinion? Everybody make their own opinion! You know?”
The rapper also lauded Trump on how the real estate industry has flourished under his term, claiming that it is better than what it was in Obama's presidency.
"I buy real estate. It’s better now than when Obama was in office. They don’t teach you in school about buying property. They teach you how to become somebody’s property,” West said.
The rapper, an Illinois native, has been a staunch supporter of President Trump. He had even visited the Republican in the Oval Office last year to extend his support and often works with the president and his team along with wife Kim Kardashian to commute sentences of some long-term prisoners. West, during the GQ interview, also defended his controversial speech on Saturday Night Live in September 2016.
West, at the time, had said: "There’s so many times when I talk to, like, a white person about this and they say, ‘How could you like Trump? He’s racist.’ Well, if I was concerned about racism, I would’ve moved out of America a long time ago," the Grammy winner said on stage at the time. He later met with Trump in New York City at Trump Tower in December 2016 after the Republican's presidential win.
The rapper, after receiving criticism for designing T-shirts for the Blexit (black exit) campaign, clarified his political views in October 2019, and decided to take a step back from politics.
“I support creating jobs and opportunities for people who need them the most, I support prison reform, I support common-sense gun laws that will make our world safer,” West tweeted at the time. "I support those who risk their lives to serve and protect us and I support holding people who misuse their power accountable. I believe in love and compassion for people seeking asylum and parents who are fighting to protect their children from violence and war.”
"My eyes are now wide open and now realize I’ve been used to spread messages I don’t believe in. I am distancing myself from politics and completely focusing on being creative !!!” the rapper added.