Trump says Kanye West ‘has a good heart’ in interview with Jewish streaming star Adin Ross
Then-President Donald Trump met with Kanye West in the Oval Office of the White House, Oct. 11, 2018. (Calla Kessler/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(JTA) — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said that Ye, the rapper whose antisemitic tirades prompted international furor and led to the collapse of his career, is “a really nice guy” with a “good heart.”
Trump made the comments Monday during a wide-ranging interview with right-wing Jewish video game streamer Adin Ross, whose large audience allows him to land prominent interviewees.
The former president’s comments were reflective of his long, close relationship with the artist formerly known as Kanye West, who publicly endorsed Trump before declaring in 2022 he was going to go “Death Con 3 on Jewish people.” Ye’s remarks, which later included a series of admiring comments about Adolf Hitler, inspired a spate of antisemitic acts across the country including graffiti reading “Kanye Is Right About The Jews.”
Shortly after Ye lost his billion-dollar contract with Adidas over his comments, Trump hosted him for a dinner at which the Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes was also in attendance, drawing heavy criticism.
Trump made only brief comments about Ye during the Monday stream, which was also marked by the 24-year-old Ross giving him a Tesla Cybertruck and a Rolex watch — a possible violation of campaign finance laws. The Ye remarks came when Ross put a photo of the musician on his computer screen and asked Trump for his immediate reactions to him.
“He’s really complicated. Let’s say ‘complicated,’” Trump said about Ye. “He is a really nice guy but he can get himself into trouble and he can get some other people. But he’s got a good heart.”
Elsewhere in the interview, which took place on the streaming platform Kick, Trump repeatedly said Israel would not currently be threatened with an attack from Iran if he were president.
“I’ve heard that Israel’s going to be attacked tonight. If I were president, nobody would even be talking about that word because it wouldn’t happen, 100%,” he said. Later he remarked that “if the election weren’t rigged” — referring to the 2020 election, which Trump falsely claims was stolen — “we wouldn’t have that attack on Israel.”
Like Trump, Ross — a South Florida native and a nexus of the growing young, online right — has a history with Ye. He approached the rapper about appearing on his Twitch channel in 2022, after Ye’s antisemitic comments went public, but the interview never happened. Ross later claimed that while the interview would have done “crazy numbers,” he wouldn’t allow Ye to use it to denigrate Jewish people, to which Ye reportedly responded, “You Jews aren’t going to tell me what I can and can’t say.”
Yet Ross, who boasts streaming audiences in the millions, has also facilitated antisemitic voices throughout his streaming career. He was permanently banned from Twitch in 2023 after showing viewers a stream of unmoderated comments, including antisemitic posts; he has also said on his streams that he doesn’t know what fascism is.
He also hosted Fuentes in 2023, challenging him on the large number of reported antisemitic hate crimes and asking him, “Why do people hate Jews?” (In response, Fuentes suggested that Jews stage antisemitic hate crimes for attention and said, “I do believe Jews are doing the work of Satan.”)
Earlier this year Ross also defended New York Jets player Sauce Gardner after he said Jews “run the world” during one of his livestreams. While Gardner soon apologized, Ross maintained he “did and said nothing wrong,” adding, “You said Jews run the world in a good way which is true.”
Meanwhile, Ye has been making bids to return to the fold since appearing to apologize to the Jewish people last year, and was also recently praised by Adidas’ new CEO even as he’s continued to flirt with antisemitism. This week he released his latest album, “Vultures 2,” in collaboration with rapper Ty Dolla $ign. He has recently been photographed wearing clothes promoting Burzum, a Norwegian metal band whose frontman, Varg Vikernes, is a neo-Nazi and convicted murderer who has authored extensive antisemitic writings.
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