Kanye West gave an explosive interview to right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson on Thursday night and the rapper revealed his ties to three political families—the Trumps, the Kushners and the Clintons.
The rapper and fashion designer—who has legally changed his name to Ye—has been embroiled in yet more controversy this week after promoting a White Lives Matter T-shirt at Paris Fashion Week.
The bombshell interview saw the Donda hitmaker discuss everything from politics to family, to abortion, Lizzo’s weight and his divorce from Kim Kardashian.
Here’s what he had to say about the prominent political families.
The Trumps
West called former President Donald Trump a friend and “my boy” in the wide ranging interview, but admitted he felt used by the former president.
West explained why he likes Trump, noting that their “conservative values all line up.”
“Even Trump, a person we’d consider to be a friend of mine isn’t immune to racialized using. One of the things he said to me is ‘Kanye, you’re my friend. When you came to the White House, my Black approval rating went up 40 percent,’” he said.
“For politicians, all Black people are worth is an approval rating. The Democrats feel that they don’t owe us anything. And Republicans feel that they don’t owe us anything. Blacks have never demanded something for our vote. Why do I like Trump? All the values, the conservative values, just line up. Come on man, Trump’s the s***. He has his own buildings.”
West also told Carlson that he was warned his “life would be over” if he publicly expressed support for Trump.
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.”
The Kushners
West was highly critical of the Kushner family during the interview and revealed that Josh Kushner, the brother of Jared, owns part of the Kim Kardashian’s Skims shapewear brand.
He also said that Trump was being held back by his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Kushner’s brother Joshua, who he referred to as “venture capitalists.”
Jared Kushner served as a senior adviser to Trump during his term and West lashed out at Joshua Kushner on Instagram earlier this week over his alleged stake in Skims.
“After talking to them and really sitting with Jared and sitting with Josh and finding out other pieces of information I was like ‘wow, these guys might’ve really been holding Trump back and being very much a handler.’ They love to look at me or look at Trump like we’re so crazy and that they’re the businessmen,” West said.
West added that the Kushners “never brought anything of value other than so-called being a good venture capitalist. I have a major issue with that and it makes me feel like they weren’t serving my boy Trump the way we could have.”
The Clintons
West also claimed he had no knowledge of a close relationship between Kim Kardashian and the Clintons while he was associated with Trump.
“I don’t have an opinion on that. I just want to state that that’s a flat statement. But it was wild that I didn’t know how close my own wife was to the Clintons. I didn’t know. You know, I didn’t realize it at the time,” West said.
Carlson asked how close the Kardashian family are to Bill and Hillary Clinton, to which he responded, “like cell phone away.”
Newsweek has contacted a Kardashian representative for comment.
Part two of the bombshell interview is set to air on Friday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox News.
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