Kanye West’s enigmatic Twitter spree continued on Saturday night when he called student activist Emma Gonzalez his hero, but the young lady didn’t seem to feel the same way.
West, who has been on a social media rampage, espousing vague ideologies while claiming to support President Donald Trump, posted a photo of the school shooting survivor, writing “my hero Emma Gonzalez.” The tweet had no punctuation and an awkward double space between the world “hero” and Emma.”
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my hero Emma Gonzalez pic.twitter.com/aSdFmraenU
โ KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 29, 2018
Gonzalez mimicked this with her response, which read: “my hero James Shaw Jr.”
my hero James Shaw Jr. pic.twitter.com/BRnuYEURdv
โ Emma Gonzรกlez (@Emma4Change) April 29, 2018
Shaw made headlines earlier this month when he tackled a mass shooter in the midst of an attack on a Nashville, Tennessee Waffle House, despite being unarmed himself. He has since raised over $100,000 for the funerals of the four people killed in that shooting.
Gonzalez did not tag West or link her tweet to his in any way, though it was understood as a direct response. A fellow survivor of the Parkland, Florida school shooting, Cameron Kasky, responded with “Dragon energy,” a reference to a recent post by West.
Dragon energy
โ Cameron Kasky (@cameron_kasky) April 29, 2018
inspired by Emma pic.twitter.com/TiZMthLK92
โ KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 29, 2018
Gonzalez and many of her classmates have not let up in their push for gun law reform. On Saturday, student activist David Hogg travelled to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where he persuaded six more congressional representatives to sign a pledge not to take money from the National Rifle Association anymore, according to his tweet.
Meanwhile, West has alienated a huge swath of his audience by defending his support for President Trump. His Twitter feed is filled with messages about universal love and positive mindset, sprinkled with arguments that he supports the president as a matter of “free thought.”
“You don’t have to agree with Trump, but the mob can’t make me not love him,” West wrote Wednesday. “We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don’t agree with everything anyone does. That’s what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.”
West first voiced his support for President Trump in 2015, though many of his fans have tried to ignore it.
As the Trump campaign gained traction, West announced his intention to run for president himself in 2020, though he soon changed the plan to 2024, implying his hope that President Trump will serve two terms.
West even met with Trump in Trump Tower on Dec. 13, 2016, according to a report by USA Today. He and the then-president-elect discussed “bullying, supporting teachers, modernizing curriculum, and violence in Chicago,” West’s hometown.
West later deleted all of his pro-Trump tweets in February of 2017, admitting that he hadn’t actually voted, though he would have cast his ballot for Trump if he had. Sources close to West told TMZ at the time that he was not pleased with the president’s travel ban on Muslim people, among other executive actions.