- President Donald Trump credited rapper Kanye West for his rising approval rating with African-Americans as he spoke at the National Rifle Association convention on Friday.
- "By the way, Kanye West must have some power, because you probably saw I doubled my African-American poll numbers. We went from 11 to 22 in one week, thank you Kanye," Trump said.
- Last week, West proclaimed his "love" for Trump on Twitter and tweeted a selfie of himself wearing one of the president's red "Make America Great Again" hats.
President Donald Trump credited rapper Kanye West for his rising approval rating with African-Americans as he spoke at the National Rifle Association's annual convention on Friday.
"By the way, Kanye West must have some power, because you probably saw I doubled my African-American poll numbers. We went from 11 to 22 in one week, thank you Kanye," Trump said.
The president joked that even the pollsters must have thought there was some kind of a mistake.
Trump seemed to be referencing a weekly tracking poll from Reuters that showed his approval rating among black men rise from 11% to 22% during the final week of April.
Last week, West proclaimed his "love" for Trump on Twitter and tweeted a selfie of himself wearing one of the president's red "Make America Great Again" hats. Trump promptly thanked the rapper for his praise.
West also criticized former President Barack Obama, tweeting "nothing in Chicago changed" during his tenure. Both West and Obama are from Chicago.
West's apparent affinity for the president has been widely criticized, though a number of prominent figures on the far-right have applauded him.
The controversial rapper generated particularly strong levels of public outrage on Tuesday after an interview with TMZ in which he suggested slavery in the US had been "a choice."
And Trump just brought up Kanye West during his NRA speech pic.twitter.com/X634ZQEA8P
- Meg Wagner (@megwagner) May 4, 2018