Kanye West Silenced After Jimmy Kimmel Challenges His Support Of Trump During Tense Discussion

On Thursday night, rapper Kanye West made his first appearance on television show Jimmy Kimmel Live since 2013, reports NBC News.

Although West is not normally known for keeping his thoughts to himself, a question proposed by host Jimmy Kimmel about his support of President Donald Trump stunned him into silence.

Kimmel is a well-known harsh critic of the current president while West has long expressed his support of Trump, at one point even going so far as to call Trump his “brother” in a tweet. Although the two talked about a range of subjects, including West’s recently diagnosed bipolar disorder, the conversation inevitably turned to Trump.

At one point, West defended his support of the president stating, “When I see people just even like go at the president, it’s like, why not try love…One by one by one, we can diffuse this nuclear bomb of hate of society by thinking of everyone as our family and how we treat our kids.”

However, Kimmel’s counter-response would prove difficult for West to hear.

“… In literal terms, there are families being torn apart at the border of this country,” Kimmel said.

“There are literally families being torn apart as a result of what this president is doing, and I think that we cannot forget that whether we like his personality or not, his actions are really what matter. I mean, you’ve so famously and so powerfully said George [W.] Bush doesn’t care about black people. It makes me wonder what makes you think that Donald Trump does — or any people at all?”

The rapper sat silently with his arms crossed until nervous laughter from the studio audience prompted Kimmel to suggest that they take a commercial break. When the cameras turned back to the interview, Kimmel attempted to lighten the mood by moving into other topics.

The two spoke about recent fashion choices West has made for his children, the rapper’s album Ye, suicide, and murder. West also launched into a bizarre diatribe about how schools should offer classes on how to balance a checkbook and about Galileo being an iconoclast, among other things.

At one point, West spoke about his bipolar disorder and how it affects his creativity, saying that if he had been diagnosed and medicated as a child, he may never have become the successful music artist that he is today.

As he spoke about his struggles, Kanye said, “It’s important for us to have open conversations about mental health…People are so afraid to face what we’re actually dealing with…We want to put a patina on it and not face it.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=rzXpJcwqYIg