Views of Kanye West
In December 2022, West stated that he admired Adolf Hitler, publicly denied the Holocaust, and identified as a Nazi in an interview with Alex Jones's Infowars.
[2][3] In February 2025, West went on a long social media rant on Twitter, which included making many antisemitic comments, praising Adolf Hitler, and defending rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs from sexual abuse allegations.
[4] In an October 2022 interview with Tucker Carlson, Kanye West stated that he is Anti-abortion, claiming that "there are more Black babies being aborted than born in New York City at this point.
[12] His 2018 album Ye discussed his struggles with mental health, including the diagnosis, and its cover art contains the statement "I hate being Bi-Polar, it's awesome".
[21] In October 2019, West stated during a performance with the Sunday Service Choir that people were too busy discussing music and sports instead of focusing on a broken system that he claims imprisons "one in three African-Americans...in this country.
[23] On his album Jesus Is King (2019), West discussed the Thirteenth Amendment, mass incarceration, criticized the prison–industrial complex, and connected three-strikes laws to slavery.
[28] During a September 2018 special guest appearance on Saturday Night Live, after the show had already gone off the air, West alleged to the crowd that it was a Democratic Party plan "to take the fathers out [of] the home and promote welfare.
Jelani Cobb challenged West's claim in The New Yorker (at least as much as it applied to Chicago), arguing that "the catalysts for violence in that city predate the 'welfare state' and the rise of single-parent black households, in the nineteen-seventies."
[33] West had previously participated in cultural boycotts, joining Shakira and Rage Against the Machine in refusing to perform in Arizona after the 2010 implementation of stop and search laws directed against potential illegal immigrants.
[34] In February 2016, West again became embroiled in controversy when he posted a tweet seemingly asserting Bill Cosby's innocence in the wake of over 50 women alleging he had sexually assaulted them.
"[62] West also posted a picture wearing a Make America Great Again hat alongside a series of tweets defending President Trump.
[66] In May 2018, West said in an interview with radio host Charlamagne tha God that he had been asked by a friend "What makes George Bush any more racist than Trump?
[71] Later in October 2018, West and his wife visited the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, a noted Trump supporter, who said they held "fruitful discussions" about promoting tourism and the arts.
The donation was the exact amount Enyia needed to pay a fine she received for not filing a campaign finance reports during her abbreviated 2015 mayoral run.
[74] Also in the same month, West was reported to have given his support to the Blexit movement, a campaign by Owens to encourage black Americans to abandon the Democratic Party and register as Republicans.
[76][77] However, West denied being the designer and disavowed the effort, tweeting "My eyes are now wide open and now realize I've been used to spread messages I don't believe in.
[100] On October 3, 2022, during his Yeezy SZN 9 fashion show in Paris, West wore a shirt with the script "WHITE LIVES MATTER",[100][101][102] a move described by Forbes as controversial.
"[105][106] I'm a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I'm going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE The funny thing is I actually can't be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda On October 7, 2022, West appeared to suggest in a post on Instagram that Puff Daddy is controlled by Jews;[108] in response, Instagram locked his account.
[108] West said that Margaret Sanger was a "known eugenic[ist]" and founded Planned Parenthood with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) "to control the Jew population."
[110] On an October 17 episode of the podcast Drink Champs, recorded the day prior, West claimed that he was being targeted by "the Jewish media" and "Zionist Jews" and said, "You really influenced me to get on this anti-Semite vibe and, you know, I'm here to finish the job.
[119][120] A few days after these comments, on October 22, the neo-Nazi Goyim Defense League protested in Los Angeles, hanging a banner that read "Kanye is right about the Jews" above a highway overpass while giving Nazi salutes.
Jeffrey Abrams of the Anti-Defamation League was quoted as expressing that "[t]hese hate groups are now leveraging the anti-Semitic tropes that Kanye West has been peddling on social media [and] on interviews".
[124] In response to his antisemitic statements, Vogue,[125] Universal Music Group,[126] CAA,[127] Balenciaga, Gap, and Adidas terminated their collaborations, sponsorships, and relationships with West.
[131][132] With the termination of his business relationships, West lost his billionaire status; Forbes estimated his reduced worth at $400 million, coming from his "real estate, cash, his music catalog, and a 5% stake in ex-wife Kim Kardashian's shapewear firm, Skims".
[139] Political correspondent Jonathan Weisman of The New York Times observed that, for American Jews, "the debate since the dinner has brought into focus what may be the most discomfiting moment in U.S. history in a half-century or more.
[164][165] On December 15, a video featuring an expletive-ridden rant from West in a meetup went viral, in which he compared himself to Hitler and Jesus Christ, and criticized people for putting their children in "Zionist schools".
He also mentioned Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, Kim Kardashian, North West (his daughter), Drake, and Donald Trump, as well as criticized the companies Gap and Adidas.
In February 2025, after calling for the freeing of mogul Sean Combs amid sex trafficking and racketeering charges, West continued his tirade of antisemitic comments on his Twitter account.
[172][173][174] Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League referred to the comments as "a sad attempt for attention that uses Jews as a scapegoat", adding, "Kanye has a far-reaching platform on which to spread his antisemitism and hate.
[176] West's store page, which initially hosted merchandise dedicated to Sean Combs for sale[172][177] and various songs, was wiped on February 10, 2025, with only a shirt bearing a Nazi swastika remaining.
