Why Kanye and Trump’s bromance makes perfect sense
FROM the outside, these two icons should be unlikely bedfellows, but underneath the covers, their friendship has made perfect sense for some time now, writes Katy Hall.
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FOR a few years now, a game called ‘Guess who tweeted it: Trump or Kanye’ has circulated the internet.
In it, two tweets of a similar vein appear, and the player must guess, as the name suggests, which celebrity said what. At first, the game was funny; the two men’s accounts are often interchangeable to the point where even the greatest fan cannot be entirely certain of whom wrote what.
This week, though, the owner of the tweet that read: “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” was all too identifiable.
Why Kanye West decided to stoke the fire of Donald Trump at this particular time is unclear, but one thing’s that’s always been known is this. To be familiar with the work and inner thoughts of Kanye West is to be puzzled at just about all times. The same could be said for Donald Trump. But where West’s actions are usually harmless and occasionally amusing, Trump’s are laced with a sense of impending doomsday fear because, let’s not forget, within reach of those comically small hands are the US’s nuclear codes.
From the outside, these two American icons should be unlikely bedfellows, but underneath the covers, their friendship has made perfect sense for some time now. These are two people whose grasp of opinion and truth is best described as blurred. People who live for the spotlight but complain when it shows their glaring imperfections. People who say one thing and do another on any given day, only to roll out the ‘you’ve all misunderstood me’ line whenever the consequences of the latest of their ill-though-out musings come knocking. People with insatiable egos who flit between being the victor and the victim with ease, and see running for the highest office in their country as the ultimate prize, not to improve the lives of others, but to freestyle their half-baked ideologies on a world stage.
When the pair met back in 2016, mostly, it was met with a universal eye roll. Sure, people wondered what Yeezy was doing, but his justification of wanting to discuss social issues and develop a relationship with the incoming President seemed reasonable, if not a little delusional.
This week’s bro-down, though, which also included a photo of West wearing a signed Make America Great Again hat and a follow-up tweet that read: “my wife just called me and she wanted me to make this clear to everyone. I don’t agree with everything Trump does. I don’t agree 100% with anyone but myself,” understandably elicited a substantially stronger response.
In 2018, it’s hard to excuse West’s ‘love everyone equally’ approach to Trump. This is a President who seems glued to cable TV stories about himself, is currently under investigation, and has spent the entirety of his first term waging war against the media.
He has criticised the Black Lives Matter movement, fought to have Muslim immigrants kept out of his country, and doggedly fostered the idea that Hillary Clinton is a criminal.
So should someone like West, who once declared himself to be “a proud non-reader of books” and a person who likes “to get information from doing stuff and actually talking to people and living real life” really be working his way into the President’s line of sight?
Obviously, the answer is no.
And issuing off yet another tweet saying that West also loves Hillary and doesn’t support everything that Trump does or says doesn’t cut the mustard. How can it when we know that Trump is as easily swayed as a tube man outside a used car dealership on a windy day?
Trump is freer and easier with the sources from which his information comes than anyone could have ever imagined. But, words are important. As is understanding the distinction between fact, opinion, information, and idea. Something neither of these men seems able to do.
By fuelling one another’s fires and listening to one another’s random ideas via social media, millions of people stand to lose.
To an extent, both men have gotten to where they are now in life by yelling the loudest. And while that may explain their unlikely affection for one another, that hardly makes anyone feel any better. Because unlike a ‘guess who said it,’ the outcome of the Trump Presidency is anything but a game.