Donald Trump Once Called for a Boycott of Kanye West in 2009
Although President-elect Donald Trump called Kanye West his “long time” friend after their Tuesday meeting in Manhattan, the 70-year-old once publicly slammed the rapper.
In a 2009 interview with TMZ, Trump called for a boycott of West in the wake of his now-infamous stage-crashing interruption of Taylor Swift at the VMAs that year.
West stole the microphone from Swift as she accepted the VMA for best female video, claiming that nominee Beyoncé had “one of the greatest videos of all time.”
Jason DeCrow/AP
The president-elect called West’s behavior “disgusting” at the time, and said he would boycott West “so this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.”
Trump further told TMZ that he felt West’s actions weren’t even based on Beyoncé’s loss, but rather the rapper was just “grandstanding to get attention.”
On Tuesday, West and Trump posed for photos after their early morning meeting, with the latter telling reporters that they had discussed “life.”
RELATED VIDEO: Yes, Donald Trump Just Met With Kanye West
Just weeks ago, West told the crowd at his Saint Pablo tour stop in San Jose, California, that he didn’t vote in the presidential election, but if he had, he would have voted for Trump.
Shortly after, West canceled the rest of the tour’s remaining dates, and was hospitalized for exhaustion and sleep deprivation. He remained under physicians’ care at UCLA Medical Center for just over a week.
