Rapper Kanye West took to Twitter Tuesday afternoon to reveal what he discussed with President-elect Donald Trump during a meeting at Trump Tower Tuesday morning — and appeared to postpone his own planned presidential run to 2024.
The outspoken rapper entered Trump Tower at around 9 a.m. to meet with the President-elect, after which the pair appeared together in front of reporters in the lobby.
“I wanted to meet with Trump today to discuss multicultural issues,” West wrote on Twitter Tuesday afternoon. “These issues included bullying, supporting teachers, modrenizing curriculums, and violence in Chicago.”
I feel it is important to have a direct line of communication with our future President if we truly want change,” he added.
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West also added another tweet, simply reading, “#2024.” The cryptic tweet is most likely a reference to his own planned presidential bid, which the rapper had previously said he had planned for 2020.
https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/808769227847036941
In November, West paused a concert in San Jose to deliver a 40-minute speech in which he said that he had not voted in the presidential election, but if he had, he would have voted for Trump.
At another concert a few days later, the rapper compared himself to Trump and rebuked former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton: “It’s a new world, Hillary Clinton, it’s a new world. Feelings matter. Because guess what? Everybody in middle America felt a way and they showed you how they felt. Feelings matter, bro.”
West first expressed an interest in running for president at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, while accepting the evening’s Video Vanguard Award, the equivalent of a lifetime achievement award.
The rapper expounded on his plans in an August interview with the BBC, when he said that Americans had become “numb” to the ongoing violence in Chicago.
“We’re numb to 500 kids getting killed in Chicago a year, we’re numb to the fact that it was seven police shootings in the beginning of July,” he said.
“When I talk about the idea of being president, I’m not saying I have any political views. I don’t have views on politics,” he added. “I just have a view on humanity, on people, on the truth. If there is anything I can do with my time and my day to somehow make a difference while I’m alive, I’m going to try to do it.”
West’s Tuesday meeting with Trump marked one of his first public appearances since he was hospitalized in November in Los Angeles.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum
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