Kanye West On Jimmy Kimmel: Supporting Trump Didn't Ruin My Career

During his appearance at the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show Thursday night, rapper Kanye West spoke of his support for President Donald Trump and said during the 2016 election every time he spoke about liking the POTUS, people told him his career would be over.

“Everyone around me tried to pick my candidate for me. And then told me every time I said I liked Trump that I couldn't say it out loud or my career would be over, I'd get kicked out of the black community,” he said.

West added as a result of his hospitalization in 2016, he had lost his confidence.

“So I didn't have the confidence to take on the world and the possible backlash. And it took me a year and a half to have the confidence to stand up and put on the hat. No matter what the consequences were,” E Online reported.

“And what it represented to me is not about policies because I’m not a politician like that, but it represented overcoming fear and doing what you felt, no matter what anyone said, in saying, you can’t bully me. Liberals can’t bully me, news can’t bully me, the hip-hop community, they can’t bully me. Because at that point, if I’m afraid to be me, I’m no longer Ye. That’s what makes Ye,” he added.

Speaking about wife Kim Kardashian’s meeting with Trump in order to issue a presidential pardon for Alice Marie Johnson, he said, "Well she's super passionate about it, and it was amazing for her to see that dream come true.”

“We’re always, you know — pushing out so much hate and love can cure so much. Just to think, am I moving in love? Is this out of love?” he continued. “And when I see people just even like go at the president, it’s like, why not try love? For one person to stand up against all odds and just hug somebody the way that Alice Johnson hugged her family when she got out of jail. That one by one by one, we can defuse this nuclear bomb of hate that we’re in as a society by thinking of everyone as our family.”

When asked if he “were you ever concerned about her being alone in the Oval Office with President Trump?" he replied by saying, "Well, he is a player!"

Kimmel then brought up the topic of West’s 2005 comments on George Bush in which he accused the then president of not caring about the black people. Kimmel left him completely speechless by asking, “I mean, you so famously and so powerfully said, ‘George Bush doesn’t care about black people.’ It makes me wonder what makes you think that Donald Trump does, or any people at all?” forcing him to go on a commercial break.

The rapper also opened about bi-polar disorder by saying, "I think it's important for us to have open conversations about mental health—especially with me being black. Because we never had therapists in the black community. We never approached taking a medication. I think it's good that when I had my first complete blackout at age 5, my mom didn't fully medicate me. Because I might have never been 'Ye. And there's times where at least I'm happy that I know [I'm bipolar.] Like even like for this interview, I knew I wanted to stay in a calm state."