West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he was warned his “life would be over” if he publicly expressed support for Trump during an interview that aired Thursday on the conservative pundit’s show Tucker Carlson Tonight.
The rapper has previously faced backlash over his support for the former president. West said that he felt a need to express himself on “another level” when Trump became a candidate in the 2016 election.
“I really felt like I think I started to really feel this need to express myself on another level when Trump was running for office and I liked him,” West told Carlson. “My so-called friends [and] handlers around me told me if I said that I like Trump that my career will be over. That my life would be over.”
“They said stuff like ‘people get killed for wearing a hat like that,’” he continued. “They threatened my life … They basically said that I would be killed for wearing the hat.”
West’s interview with Carlson came after West faced heavy criticism for wearing a shirt featuring the slogan “White Lives Matter” at a fashion show in Paris on Monday. He said that he recently received a call from someone who suggested he would be physically attacked for wearing the shirt.
“I had someone call me last night and [say], ‘anybody wearing a White Lives Matter shirt is going to be green lit.’ And that means that they’re gonna beat them up if they wear it. And I’m like, OK, green light me then.”
West said criticism over him wearing the shirt alongside right-wing activist Candace Owens was a “setup,” insisting that he had been unjustly attacked by a “group mob” that was like “liberal Nazis.”
He went on to explain that he believes Trump is “the s**t” because the former president has “his own buildings.” However, West did appear to criticize Trump while suggesting that the former president had used him to boost approval rating among Black voters.
“Older white people [are] quick to classify a Black person only by the fact that we’re Black,” said West. “Even Trump—a person that’s … you know, we’d consider to be a friend of mine … one of the things he said to me was, ‘Kanye, you’re my friend. When you came to the White House, my Black approval rating went up 40 percent.’”
“For politicians, all Black people are worth is an approval rating,” he continued.
West also hinted at making another potential presidential run in 2024. He previously ran as a “Birthday Party” candidate during the 2020 presidential election, with some accusing him of running a spoiler campaign to benefit Trump.
Newsweek has reached out to West’s publicist and Trump’s office for comment.
