Remarks by President Trump in Meeting with Kanye West and Jim Brown | Eastern North Carolina Now

    But you know what I don't like about - it's not that I don't like - what I need Saturday Night Live to improve on, or what I need the liberals to improve on is, if he don't look good, we don't look good. This is our President.

    THE PRESIDENT: It's true.

    MR. WEST: He has to be the freshest, the flyest, the flyest planes, the best factories. And we have to make our core be in power. We have to bring jobs into America because our best export is entertainment and ideas. But when we make everything in China and not in America, then we're cheating on our country and we're putting people in positions to have to do illegal things to end up in a cheapest factory ever: the prison system.

    THE PRESIDENT: I'll tell you what - that was pretty impressive, folks. (Laughter.) You know, I hate to say this - Jim, do you want to say something? (Laughter.) What do you after that?

    PARTICIPANT: You don't mind if I -

    THE PRESIDENT: You are - please, Jim. Please.

    MR. BROWN: If he doesn't look good, we don't look good.

    THE PRESIDENT: Great, right? Isn't that a great statement?

    MR. BROWN: Yes, it is.

    THE PRESIDENT: And it's so true.

    MR. BROWN: Makes a lot of sense.

    THE PRESIDENT: As a country. It's - very - I've never seen Jim Brown impressed before. (Laughter.) He was impressed. That's true. That statement is amazing, huh?

    MR. BROWN: Yeah, yeah. It makes a lot of sense.

    THE PRESIDENT: I want to say it's great to have you guys here. And we're going to go and we're going to have some lunch.

    That was quite something. That was quite something.

    MR. WEST: It was from the soul. I just channeled it.

    THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.

    Q Can I just ask a quick question of Kanye?

    THE PRESIDENT: Really very interesting.

    Yes, yeah. Please.

    Q So you had said, of President Bush, that he doesn't care about black people. And you've heard some people say that about this President. What do you - how do you respond to that? What do you make of that?

    MR. WEST: I think we need to care about all people. And I believe that when I went on to NBC, I was very emotional, and I was programmed to think from a victimized mentality. A welfare mentality.


    I think that with blacks and African Americans, we really get caught up in the idea of racism over the idea of industry. We say if people don't have land, they settle for brands. We want Polo-sporting Obama again. We want a brand more than we want land. Because we've haven't known how it feels to actually have our own land and have ownership of our own blocks.

    So when you don't have ownership, then it's all about how something looks. It's about the patina; it's not about the soul, it's not about the core. So we focus more on, is somebody wearing something; is someone disrespecting so I got to shoot them. Or the idea of someone being racist.

    You know, we talk about police murders, which we definitely have to discuss, and we have to bring nobility to the police officers and make - the police officers are just like us. But there's this whole hate-building, right? And that's a major thing about racial tension.

    And we also, as black people, we have to take a responsibility for what we're doing. We kill each other more than police officers. And that's not saying that the police officer is not is not an issue, because they are in a place - a position of power. But sometimes they're in a place of law enforcement. They need to be law-power. It's force versus power. And when you - you shouldn't have to force people to do that.

    So a lot of times the police officer is sitting there, they're being forced to do this and forced to do that block. And then they force somebody into something and force into something. We have to release the love throughout the entire country and give opportunities. A lot of times it's just the overall lack of reparations that we, at any given point, we say, "Oh, this is racist. This is racist. This is racist. This is racist."

    So we don't have reparations, but we have the 13th Amendment. We got to open up the whole conversation. So - and that's a move. One of the moves that I love that liberals try to do - the liberal would try to control a black person through the concept of racism, because they know that we are very proud, emotional people. So when I said "I like Trump" to, like, someone that's liberal, they'll say, "Oh, but he's racist." You think racism could control me? Oh, that don't stop me. That's an invisible wall.

    Q But you don't think - you reject those who say he's racist?

    MR. WEST: On your question - and you had one question; we're going to do it to another question.

    Q (Laughs.) Okay.

    MR. WEST: I answered your question. I don't answer questions in simple soundbites. You are tasting a fine wine. It has multiple notes to it. (Laughter.) You better play 4D chess with me like it's Minority Report. Because it ain't that simple. It's complex.

    Q When would you like - I'm from the Chicago Sun Times, sir. I would like to know what you would like to ask President Trump to do for Chicago. You're here to talk about crime in Chicago.

    MR. WEST: The thing that the head of the police and Mike Sacks met with me last night at the Soho House about was we feel that "stop and frisk" does not help the relationships in the city. And everyone that knew I was coming here said, "Ask about stop and frisk." That's the number-one thing that we're having this conversation about.

    Another thing is opening up industries. And we've got to get some tax breaks too. Because we're making - we got a Speedfactory in Atlanta, but the shoes are costing us $300, so it's costing us too much to make things.

    So we need some prototypes here so we can get people back working, so China can't just beat us and Vietnam can't beat us. You got Levi's, the greatest jeans company in the world, making their jeans in Vietnam.

    So we're going to need to get a few breaks to be able to have some places in my hometown of Chicago, and 2.7 million to the 9 million surrounding suburbs where we can create some factories.

    Now, I think it would be cool for them to be Trump factories, because he's a master of industry. He's a builder. And I think it would be cool to have Yeezy ideation centers, which would be a mix of education that empowers people and gives them modern information like - sometimes people say, "This kid has ADD. This kid has ADD." He don't have ADD. School is boring. It was boring. It's not as exciting as this. We have to make it more exciting. We have to mix curriculums.

    You play basketball while you're doing math. You learn about music while you meditate in the morning. We have to instate mental health and art programs back into the city. So those are -

    And also, Larry Hoover is an example of a man that was turning his life around, and as soon as he tried to turn his life around, they hit him with six life sentences. So I believe he's - you say don't tear down the statues? Larry Hoover is a living statue. He's a beacon for us that needs to see his family; that needs to go out and represent. When you have a block leader on every single block, they can own the block as their own. That's something I learned from Jim Brown, from "Amer-I-Can."

    We need to put curriculums for people who really came from the streets, not people who were just trying to set us up to go into a work system or prison system that applies to what people are really going through, which Jim Brown has created.

    Q What about gun violence? With all the debate about the Second Amendment going on, how do you fix that?

    MR. WEST: The problem is illegal guns. Illegal guns is the problem, not legal guns. We have the right to bear arms.

    Q President Trump has said that he favors "stop and frisk." Are guys going to be discussing that? Do you think you can change his mind?

    MR. WEST: Yeah. We're going to discuss that. I didn't mean to put you on blast like that, bro, but -

    THE PRESIDENT: No, no. It's okay. (Laughter.)

    MR. WEST: But this is definitely a -

    THE PRESIDENT: Hey, I'm open-minded. I'm here. I am open-minded.

    Q Mr. President, would you like him to speak at one of your rallies?

    THE PRESIDENT: He can speak for me anytime he wants. He's been a great guy. He's a smart cookie. Smart. He gets it. These two guys - Jim Brown. He's been doing this for a long time.

    MR. BROWN: Yes, sir.

    Q Is this a future presidential candidate?

    THE PRESIDENT: Could very well be.

    MR. WEST: Only after him. It'll be 2024.

    THE PRESIDENT: Could very well be. That's good. I'm glad to hear that.


    MR. WEST: We have a good - and the thing is, let's stop worrying about the future. All we really have is today. We just have today. Over and over and over again, the eternal return. The hero's journey. And Trump is on his hero's journey right now. And he might not have expected to have a crazy motherfucker like Kanye West run up and support, but best believe we are going to make America great.

    Now, the thing is my - another thing is black people have an issue with the word "again." And I believe - my feeling from that is because I'm going to throw - I'm going to go all the way, (inaudible), because time is a myth. All we have is now. All we have is today.

    So the word "again" - it doesn't hurt us because the idea of racism and slavery, different things; it hurts us because we need to focus on who we are now, today, I believe.

    So I actually brought some hats in that have a bit of a transition. I'm not trying to put you - (inaudible) in the spot a little bit. I made a hat that says "Make America Great." Just that.

    But I would love to see, at the Super Bowl, Trump wearing the "Make America Great" hat; Colin making - wearing the "Make America Great," and showing that we can bend a bit on this side, we can bend a bit on this side, and we can learn how to be malleable in the infinite universe that we are and the loving beings that we are. That we don't have to stick to our own traditions. And we aren't a side. We are one unit. We are one country. We are one moment in history and time. We might have been here before, but right now we're here together. And our greatest value that people have are other people. And we need to stop working on (inaudible). It's like gang again.

    THE PRESIDENT: Let me ask you this question. You're in the Oval Office -

    MR. WEST: Okay. (Laughs.)

    THE PRESIDENT: How does it feel to be in the Oval Office?

    MR. WEST: Oh, it is good energy in this.

    THE PRESIDENT: Isn't it good energy?

    MR. WEST: It's good energy.

    THE PRESIDENT: It's a great place. Jim, how do you feel?

    MR. BROWN: I feel good. I truly feel good. And thank you, too.