Just when you thought the story of right-wing conservatives flocking to Kanye West couldn't get more complicated, President Donald Trump thanked the hip-hop star on Twitter for his recent support.
"You don't have to agree with Trump but the mob can't make me not love him," West tweeted Wednesday morning. "We are both dragon energy. He is my brother."
Thank you Kanye, very cool! https://t.co/vRIC87M21X
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2018
You don't have to agree with trump but the mob can't make me not love him. We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don't agree with everything anyone does. That's what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
For those who aren't caught up on the social media drama, West returned to Twitter and Instagram last week after deleting his accounts for unknown reasons last year. At first, the rapper posted about typical Kanye things (fashion, music, musings), but then things got much more political. On Saturday, he sent a tweet supporting conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has been particularly vocal about her distaste for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Comedian Akilah Hughes summed up the backlash perfectly in a tweet that referenced West's highly public criticism of President George W. Bush after Hurricane Katrina.
Kanye doesn’t care about black people.
— Akilah Hughes (@AkilahObviously) April 25, 2018
Getting support from conservative figureheads Alex Jones and Scott Adams was one thing, but earlier Wednesday, Kanye posted tweets trumpeting his MAGA-ness, as well as expressing a little Excel hate.
my MAGA hat is signed 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/DrDHJybS8V
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
If your friend jumps off the bridge you don't have to do the same. Ye being Ye is a fight for you to be you. For people In my life the idea of Trump is pretty much a 50 50 split but I don't tell a Hillary supporter not to support Hillary
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
I love Hillary too.
burn that excel spread sheet 🔥😂
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
Kanye's tweets didn't just defend his support for his fellow "dragon energy" being. They pulled in some prominent Silicon Valley players, with one photo taken with two seemingly random people actually picturing major players in the digital-music space.
Cheat sheet: This is Lucian Grainge (CEO of Universal Music, biggest music label in the world) and Lyor Cohen (head of music at YouTube, the biggest video site in the world) pic.twitter.com/7VNo8ZtNjH
— Joan E. Solsman (@joan_e) April 25, 2018
Even Peter Thiel, better known for his investments in Facebook, founding the controversial Palantir Technologies and shutting down Gawker, got a shout-out.
I'm so happy to hear that Peter Thiel would like to take a meeting. I feel very optimistic about the future.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
He may have to wait on that meeting with Alphabet CEO Larry Page, who has in the past supported President Obama.
I need to meet with Larry from google
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
And Kanye later tweeted he wanted to meet with Apple CEO Tim Cook, who spoke with Trump in a closed-door meeting Wednesday about a possible trade war between the US and China, and attended Trump's first state dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron.
I'd like to meet with Tim Cook. I got some ideas
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
What has all of this activity done for Kanye's Twitter following? Between Monday and Wednesday afternoon, it looked like Kanye had lost nearly 8 million followers, according to social listening tool CrowdTangle. But as many on Twitter have flagged, his actual follower count has been subject to fluctuation since his return.
"We can confirm that Kanye's follower count is currently at approximately 27M followers. Any fluctuation that people might be seeing is an inconsistency and should be resolved soon," a Twitter spokesperson told CNET.
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Updated, 4:03 p.m. PT: This post has been updated to reflect reports of Kanye's follower count being subject to "inconsistency."
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