Kanye West met with President-elect Trump Tuesday morning, just weeks after being hospitalized for exhaustion and sleep deprivation.
The rapper emerged with the incoming Republican president about 40 minutes after reporters intially spotted him and his entourage entering the lobby of Trump Tower.
A spokesperson for Trump said West “enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with [the president-elect].”
“We’ve been friends for a long time,” Trump told reporters as West stood silently by his side. The president-elect said they spoke about “life,” while West ignored repeated questions about whether he remains interested in launching a White House bid of his own in 2020 – an idea he had floated early on in the 2016 election cycle.
“I just want to take a picture right now,” West said, grinning.
It was not immediately clear why the two men met or what they discussed. West had repeatedly praised Trump during several stops on his tour last month, telling fans at a concert in San Jose, Calif., that he “wanted to vote for Trump” but couldn’t do so because he wasn’t registered.
“It’s a new world, Hillary Clinton, it’s a new world,” he said during a performance on Nov. 20. “Feelings matter. Because guess what? Everybody in Middle America felt a way and they showed you how they felt.”
Reached by phone, a spokeswoman for West told the Washington Examiner: “There is no information we can give you about his visit [to Trump Tower].” She declined to comment when asked who initiated the meeting.
In a series of tweets Tuesday afternoon, West discussed his talk with the president-elect. “I wanted to meet with Trump today to discuss multicultural issues,” he said. West also seemed to reference a potential future run for office of his own, simply tweeting: “#2024.”
