Kanye West followed his appearance on the 44th Saturday Night Live season premiere with rambling pro-Trump remarks that prompted boos in the studio.
Wearing a red Make America Great Again cap, West followed a performance of Ghost Town by addressing the audience.
The remarks were not broadcast but in footage shot by the comedian Chris Rock and posted to social media, West said: “The blacks want always Democrats … you know it’s like the plan they did, to take the fathers out the home and put them on welfare… does anybody know about that? That’s a Democratic plan.
“There’s so many times I talk to, like, a white person about this and they say, ‘How could you like Trump? He’s racist.’ Well, uh, if I was concerned about racism I would’ve moved out of America a long time ago.”
He added: “Now you got a situation where we need to have a dialogue, and not a diatribe.”
Later, in a string of tweets criticised on social media, he called for the amendment that abolished slavery to be scrapped, before clarifying that he wanted to see it “amended”.
The initial tweet showed a photo of himself on an airplane wearing one of Donald Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” hats.
this represents good and America becoming whole again. We will no longer outsource to other countries. We build factories here in America and create jobs. We will provide jobs for all who are free from prisons as we abolish the 13th amendment. Message sent with love pic.twitter.com/a15WqI8zgu
— ye (@kanyewest) September 30, 2018
“This represents good and America becoming whole again,” West wrote. “We will no longer outsource to other countries. We build factories here in America and create jobs. We will provide jobs for all who are free from prisons as we abolish the 13th amendment. Message sent with love.”
West was a late replacement as an SNL guest after the singer Ariana Grande dropped out, reportedly for “emotional reasons” after the death of her former boyfriend, Mac Miller.
Before the show, the rapper announced a name change on Twitter, saying he was now “the being formally known as Kanye West. I am YE”.
During SNL, which was hosted by the actor Adam Driver, West performed his song I Love It while dressed as a Perrier bottle.
On Sunday morning, the rapper claimed to have been invited back. “Had so much fun at SNL,” he wrote on Twitter. “Lorne [Michaels, SNL’s creator] agreed that I would host before the year is out. Need to set a date. Gonna be sooooooooo lit.”
The president also weighed in, tweeting that though “like many, I don’t watch Saturday Night Live”, and though he found the show “no longer funny” and “just a political ad for the Dems”, he had heard West, “who put on a MAGA hat after the show (despite being told ‘no’), was great”.
“He’s leading the charge!” Trump wrote.
The billionaire hosted SNL in November 2015, almost exactly a year before his shock election victory over Hillary Clinton.
