Throughout 2018, Kanye has found himself in the middle of a lot of controversies. From new songs to Twitter rampages earlier this summer, Kanye just hasn’t known when to stop. Last week, when he was interviewed on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” was no different, specifically when the subject of President Donald Trump came up.
In May of this year, Kanye went on a major Twitter tear, in which he tweeted over 50 times in one day and caught the attention of pretty much everyone. Among those tweets were pictures of Kanye wearing one of Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” hats that even had an autograph from the president himself. As might be expected, Kanye received a lot of attention, and a lot of hate, as a result of these posts, including notice from the president himself.
In addition to the MAGA selfie, Kanye also expressed some controversial views about how the Republican party worked harder for black rights in America. Upon receiving even more backlash, he followed up with a screenshotted text from John Legend himself, who basically gave Kanye a history lesson about the Civil Rights Act. Kanye has since deleted a lot of these tweets, but the only person that really understands what Kanye meant by any of them is Kanye himself.
On Thursday, Kanye appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and, naturally, Kimmel took the opportunity to bring up the subject that everyone was wondering about: Trump. Kimmel, who has openly criticized Trump on his show, said, “There are literally family beings torn apart as a result of what this President is doing… I mean, you so famously and so powerfully said, ‘George W. Bush doesn’t care about black people.’ It makes me wonder what makes you think Donald Trump does, or any people at all.”
After that very pointed question, the camera panned to Kanye, who paused for a few seconds without saying anything. Kimmel then called for a commercial break, but many feel that Kanye’s pause said enough.
After the episode aired, Kanye took to Twitter to say that, despite popular assumptions, he was not “stumped,” he just didn’t have time to answer the question. Kimmel also tweeted and agreed that, “Not every question warrants an immediate answer. Some answers need to be considered and a talk show with time constraints is a difficult place to do that.”
Kimmel was not the only one who responded to Kanye’s tweet, as Trump tweeted, “Thank you to Kanye West and the fact that he is willing to tell the TRUTH… Thank you Kanye for your support. It is making a big difference!”
That raises a huge question: Is this really making a big difference? Are Kanye’s tweets, many of which boast supposed facts that do not seem to be fully understood or researched, making a difference to his fans? If so, does Kanye even know what he’s doing?
Celebrities have a huge influence on their fans, especially via social media. Many celebrities use this to their advantage, supporting causes that they believe in and helping others, but with Kanye, his intentions are not clear. It is unclear if he has researched Trump’s policies or even keeps up with the news, but it is important that he realizes soon that his actions have a huge impact on his fans, the younger fans especially. Now, everyone is wondering Kanye, are you okay?
