These Celebrities Unfollowed Kanye West on Twitter After He Fawned Over Trump
What a week for Kanye West! Following some pro-Trump and pro-right-wing statements he made over the last few days, people are a bit confused by what they consider a political about-face. And in addition to people questioning his sanity following some chummy tweets involving Donald Trump, some celebrities have actually unfollowed Kanye West on Twitter.
On April 21, Kanye West tweeted, “I love the way Candace Owens thinks,” Owens being a fairly popular face of the conservative movement (who also happens to be a black woman). People’s eyes and ears immediately perked up, but it wasn’t until today the proverbial shit really hit the fan.
Today saw Kanye West praise U.S. President Donald Trump, refer to Trump as his “brother,” post a photo of himself donning a “Make America Great Again” hat (that he later got Trump to sign) and tweet a barrage of other mostly ‘out there’ stuff. (Among the ‘out there’ stuff: “I am this generations Ford Hughes Jobs Disney,” “People magazine. Watch how you speak my name. You would love a pair of Yeezys. Don’t play yourself.” and “I want to see a tour with Nikki Minaj and Cardi B.”)
We agree with that last one.
Also tweeted by Kanye: “I’m so happy to hear that Peter Thiel would like to take a meeting. I feel very optimistic about the future.” Thiel is of course the “quintessential gay douchebag” who also happens to be an ardent Trump supporter.
Following all of the rapper’s Twitter action, celebrities who have reportedly unfollowed Kanye West include Ariana Grande, BTS, Drake, Harry Styles, Jaden Smith, Janelle Monáe, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Kendrick Lamar, Lana del Rey, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, The Weeknd, Troye Sivan and Zayn Malik. (At least according to the sneaky Twitter tool DoesFollow.com.)
For a while today there was speculation that between 9–11 million Twitter users unfollowed Kanye West, but Twitter reps have officially come out to say that’s a bogus claim. West’s fanbase on Twitter remains around 28 million.
Unsurprisingly, not all celebrities have unfollowed Kanye West. Chance the Rapper, in fact, took to Twitter to defend his friend, saying “Black people don’t have to be Democrats.” He also says Kanye West is currently “in a good space.”
Talked to him two days ago. He’s in a great space and not affected by folk tryna question his mental or physical health. Same Ye from the Vmas, same Ye from the telethon. https://t.co/2zY3KpllV2
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) April 25, 2018
And then there’s Ivanka Trump, who has an interesting relationship with the controversial rapper on Twitter. Yesterday she reportedly followed and then unfollowed Kanye West — twice.
We know this because there’s a Twitter account, @TrumpsAlert, that is a bot account tracking the first family’s follows and unfollows on the social media platform. That account tweeted that Ivanka followed and unfollowed Kanye West twice in two days. Some think it was Ivanka’s attempt at getting the rapper to ‘follow’ her, which may be the case. We do know that Ivanka considers herself a fan.
