President Trump Thanks Kanye West for His Support: ‘It Is Making a Big Difference’

President Donald Trump thanked Kanye West for his support after West appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Thursday night.

“Thank you to Kanye West and the fact that he is willing to tell the TRUTH,” Trump tweeted late Friday. “One new and great FACT – African American unemployment is the lowest ever recorded in the history of our Country. So honored by this. Thank you Kanye for your support. It is making a big difference!”

On Thursday, West appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the first time in five years and once again defended his support for Trump, which has divided fans.

Kimmel began the Trump part of the interview by asking West about his wife Kim Kardashian West’s efforts to have Trump commute Alice Johnson’s jail sentence.

“Were you ever concerned about her being alone in the Oval Office with President Trump?” Kimmel asked.

“Well, he’s a player,” West jokingly replied.

Kimmel took a serious turn with his next question though, asking West if he thought Trump is a good president.

“Just as a musician, African-American, guy out in Hollywood, all these different things — you know, 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,” West explained, reports CNN. “I’d get kicked out of the black community because blacks, we are supposed to have a monolithic thought, we can only be Democrats and all.”

West said he thought about going public with his support of Trump for months before he finally decided to wear a “Make America Great Again” hat in public. His decision to do that was a sign of “overcoming fear,” West explained.

“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. And I actually quite enjoy when people actually are mad at me about certain things,” West told Kimmel.

While the conversation was going well, Kimmel later reminded West of the infamous moment in 2005, when West said President 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?” Kimmel asked.

West went speechless and crossed his arms. Kimmel threw the show to a commercial break at the awkward moment.

The Ye rapper went public with his Trump support in April, which prompted a quick “thank you” from the president.

“You don’t have to agree with Trump, but the mob can’t make me not love him,” West tweeted on April 25. “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.”

Photo credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images