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Donald Trump says Kanye West is performing 'great service' to black community in tweet

The president also shared his appreciation for Chance The Rapper

Ilana Kaplan
Friday 27 April 2018 15:23 BST
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Donald Trump thanks Kanye West for Twitter compliments

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Donald Trump has tweeted that rapper Kanye West has done “a great service” for the black community by speaking up about his support for the president.

The president wrote: “Kanye West has performed a great service to the Black Community – Big things are happening and eyes are being opened for the first time in Decades – Legacy Stuff!”

He continued: “Thank you also to Chance and Dr. Darrell Scott, they really get it (lowest Black & Hispanic unemployment in history).”

His tweet comes after West voiced his support for Trump and the alt-right in a barrage of divisive posts earlier this week – including some with the rapper wearing his “Make America Great Again” hat.

Trump also shouted out Chance The Rapper who tweeted support for West saying: “Black people don’t have to be democrats.”

West had initially written his support of Black Conservative YouTube personality Candace Owens earlier this week, which started to get people on the internet talking.

He also once again fuelled rumours of a presidential run by tweeting “2024” and by calling himself “your future president” when sending an open message to TMZ’s Harvey Levin after the gossip news outlet had called him “erratic” in a news post.

The rapper continued to show his support of conservative viewpoints by sharing nine videos of alt-right comic artist Scott Adams.

In the videos, Adams shows his appreciation for West ushering the public into the “golden age” with his tweets.

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West’s recent tweets have faced backlash from other musicians as well.

On Thursday John Legend spoke out about West’s recent posts saying that he imagines “there’s some comfort in imagining a future without racism and projecting that onto the present.”

In reference to West, Legend said, “I love that great, brilliant artists have the power to imagine a better future. But artists can’t be blind to the truth.”

He further pointed out that Trump’s campaign was based on “white supremacy”.

In response to Legend, West tweeted a screen shot of a conversation between the two musicians where Legend asked him to “reconsider aligning himself with Trump”.

West told Legend that he was using his “fans” and “legacy” as a “tactic based on fear to manipulate my free thought”.

Snoop Dogg also called out West on Instagram, describing his fellow rapper’s perspective as “mighty white” and telling him to “snap out of it”.

Frank Ocean’s reply to West was more subtle: he posted an image to Tumblr of West during the Hurricane Katrina telethon when he said, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

West has yet to reply to Donald Trump’s praise.

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