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9 celebrities who visited Trump in the White House in 2018
9 celebrities who visited Trump in the White House in 2018
Eliza RelmanDec 13, 2018, 22:48 IST
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It's no secret President Trump is drawn to celebrities.
Even though the president has made enemies of many prominent celebrities, several members of the showbiz elite visited the president at the White House in 2018.
Some came to witness legislation being signed, while others advocated for political causes.
President Donald Trump has notoriously made enemies of many of the country's most prominent celebrities. But he still calls a few of them friends.
This year, Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West made separate visits to the White House, while musicians including Kid Rock, Beach Boys cofounder Mike Love, and Christian rock group MercyMe attended Trump's signing of the Music Modernization Act bill in October.
Here are the celebrities who visited the White House this year:
Kim Kardashian West visited the White House in May to meet with Trump about criminal justice reform issues.
Kardashian West successfully pushed Trump to grant clemency to 63-year-old Alice Marie Johnson, who had been serving a life sentence without parole since the 1990s for a low-level, non-violent drug offense.
Kanye West
Rapper Kanye West made a controversial visit to the White House in October, during which he delivered a nearly 10-minute long monologue concerning a range of issues from the "Superman" energy he said Trump's "Make America Great Again" hat gives him, to his mental health.
West at one point referred to himself as a "motherf---er" during his visit.
"Let's stop worrying about the future. All we really have is today," he said, adding: "Trump is on his hero's journey right now, and he might not have expected to have a crazy motherf---er like Kanye West."
Trump described the rapper's rant as "pretty impressive."
West also attended Trump's signing of the Music Modernization Act at the White House.
Former NFL player Jim Brown
Retired NFL player Jim Brown joined Trump and Kanye West for their October Oval Office sit-down. Brown had used his profile as a world-famous athlete to advocate for civil rights and spearheading initatives to help African-Americans to start their own businesses in the 1960s.
Kid Rock
Robert James Ritchie, better known as the musician Kid Rock, attended the October bill signing in his signature rockstar garb and sunglasses.
"This business of music is a pretty dirty business ... but this is a great start to protect songwriters, producers, engineers — the unsung heroes behind many of these songs that go out there," he said of the Act.
Trump welcomed Sam Moore, a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer best known as one-half of the soul and R&B duo Sam & Dave, for the music bill's signing and wished him a happy 83rd birthday.
"He looks good," Trump joked. "83! That means there's a future for us."
Moore praised the president in return.
"When Mr. Bush was in we couldn't get it done. When we had Mr. Obama in, we couldn't get it done. But we got it done with this man," he said.
Mike Love
Mike Love, the Grammy Award-winning cofounder of The Beach Boys who also holds a spot in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, also appeared alongside Trump for the bill's signing.
"People can say what they want, but you've always been a big supporter of some of the best music America's ever made," Love said of Trump.
9 celebrities who visited Trump in the White House in 2018
John Rich, who also attended the music bill signing, is both a longtime country singer-songwriter and former bass guitarist in the bands Lonestar and the Big & Rich duo, as well as a 2011 "Celebrity Apprentice" contestant.
"He happened to win 'The Apprentice,' but we won't even get into that," Trump, who hosted "The Apprentice," joked at the White House. "I know him better than anybody. I said 'you're fired' to everybody except John Rich ... he's good under pressure which is very nice."
Christian rock band MercyMe
The contemporary Christian rock band MercyMe, pictured here at the 2018 Grammy Awards, also appeared at the White House to commemorate the bill's signing.