American rapper Kanye West has received mainstream media attention for his outspoken views on numerous political and social issues. He donated to the political campaigns of Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and Hillary Clinton in 2016. From 2018 to 2020, West publicly endorsed Donald Trump on several occasions before launching his own presidential campaign in 2020, and supported Trump once more in 2024. West has met with Trump on several occasions, most recently dining with Trump and far-right political commentator Nick Fuentes in 2022. In his unsuccessful run for president of the United States in 2020, he espoused consistent life ethic and other Christian positions. His subsequent campaign in the 2024 election was active for several months in late 2022, although no formal paperwork was filed.

Beginning in 2018, West expressed opposition to abortion, capital punishment, welfare, and vaccines, and has expressed support towards gun rights, gay marriage, legalization of cannabis, and religious freedom. His views grew more radical following his divorce from Kim Kardashian. In December 2022, West said he admired Adolf Hitler, publicly denied the Holocaust, and identified as a Nazi in an interview with Alex Jones's Infowars. In a rant on Twitter in February 2025, West made antisemitic comments, praised Hitler, and defended rapper Sean Combs from sexual misconduct allegations. West initially claimed that his rant was a "social experiment", but later retracted his statement and reaffirmed his views. He has been widely condemned and lost many sponsors and partnerships. In May 2025, West stated he is "done with antisemitism".

In January 2026, West published an open letter ad in The Wall Street Journal titled "To Those I've Hurt", stating that due to his prior incident in 2002 involving a car crash he had developed Bipolar I disorder. This allegedly led West over the years to a steady decline in his mental state leading him to "gravitate toward the worst symbol he could find, the swastika". He has apologized to Jewish and Black people, committing to therapy and "accountability".

Social issues Abortion

In October 2019, West (then a devout Evangelical Christian) spoke out against abortion, citing his belief in the Sixth Commandment; "thou shalt not kill". In an October 2022 interview with Tucker Carlson, Kanye West stated that he is anti-abortion, claiming that "there are more Black babies being aborted than born in New York City at this point. That 50% of Black death in America is abortion". That same month, he repeated these claims on a podcast with Lex Fridman, saying that "Fifty percent today of ... Black people's deaths today is abortion.... It's not racism; that's too wide of a term. It's genocide and population control that Black people are in today in America, that is promoted by the music and the media that Black people make, that Jewish record labels get paid off of".

Death penalty In 2020, West said he was against capital punishment.Kanye West Says He's Done With Trump—Opens Up About White House Bid, Damaging Biden And Everything In Between Forbes. July 8, 2020

LGBTQ rights West has spoken in support of gay marriage early in his career. In a 2005 MTV News interview with Sway Calloway, West spoke out against homophobia in hip hop music, stating that "everybody in hip-hop discriminates against gay people." Further reflecting on the issue, he used to use "gay" as an insult, but later changed after meeting his cousin's male partner, stating: "Yo, this is my cousin, I love him. I've been discriminating against gays. Do I discriminate against my cousin?" In July 2015, he met Caitlyn Jenner for the first time, also helping the Kardashian family accept her transition as a trans woman.

Later, his views shifted to a more conservative approach. In a 2022 interview for Censored.TV with Gavin McInnes, West stated: "You know, the thing about that, 95 percent of gay people don't get married anyway. So it's a very liberal thing that is put up to like cause these headlines. All my policies are gonna follow the Bible." In April 2025, West tweeted multiple controversial posts about transgender people, posting that his "dick to [sic] long for trans pussy" and that "You start dating a trans women [sic] and wondering why y'all got so many things in common."

Mental health West was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016. His eighth studio album Ye (2018) discussed his struggles with mental health, including the diagnosis, and its cover art contains the statement "I hate being Bi-Polar, it's awesome". In December 2018, West said that he stopped taking bipolar medication six months prior as he believed it was negatively impacting the quality of his musical output, declaring that he could not have made his albums My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Watch the Throne while medicated.

In a 2022 interview with record executive Wack 100, West alleged that his previous diagnosis of having bipolar disorder was a misdiagnosis from a Jewish doctor, believing that he is "more autistic than bipolar." In a 2025 interview with Justin Laboy, West stated that he had been formally diagnosed with autism at the suggestion of his wife.

Books Although West has written several books, he has shown aversion to books and the act of reading. During a 2022 episode of Alo Yoga'''s "Alo Mind Full" podcast, West said that he "actually haven't read any book," adding on that "reading is like eating Brussels sprouts for me."

Religious freedom West supports faith-based organizations and restoring school prayer in the United States.

Prison reform In September 2018, West called for the alteration of the Thirteenth Amendment as it contained a loophole which suggested the legality of enslaving convicts. During a meeting with Trump the following month, West called the Thirteenth Amendment a "trap door".

In October 2019, West stated during a performance with the Sunday Service Choir that people were too busy discussing music and sports instead of focusing on a broken system that he claims imprisons "one in three African-Americans...in this country." The following month, West alleged that the media calls him "crazy" to silence his opinion, connecting this to the incarceration of African-Americans and celebrities.

On his album Jesus Is King (2019), West discussed the Thirteenth Amendment, mass incarceration, criticized the prison–industrial complex, and drew a connection between the three-strikes law and slavery.

Economics

In May 2018, West espoused the "Democratic plantation" theory that welfare is a tool used by the Democratic Party to keep black Americans as an underclass that remains reliant on the party. During a September 2018 special guest appearance on Saturday Night Live, after the show had already gone off the air, West alleged to the crowd that it was a Democratic Party plan "to take the fathers out [of] the home and promote welfare."

The following month, West alleged that homicide was a byproduct of a "welfare state" that destroyed black families. Jelani Cobb challenged West's claim in The New Yorker (at least as much as it applied to Chicago), arguing that "the catalysts for violence in that city predate the 'welfare state' and the rise of single-parent black households, in the nineteen-seventies." He pointed to findings from Chicago Commission on Race Relations regarding the violence of the Chicago race riots of 1919 and a 1945 study entitled Black Metropolis, published by sociologists St. Clair Drake and Horace Cayton, which Cobb wrote, "detailed the ways in which discrimination in housing and employment were negatively affecting black migrants." He also noted similar observations made by W. E. B. Du Bois in Philadelphia, in 1903.

Other In September 2013, West was widely rebuked by human rights groups for performing in Kazakhstan for the wedding of authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbayev's grandson. West was reportedly paid $3 million for his performance. West had previously participated in cultural boycotts, joining Shakira and Rage Against the Machine in refusing to perform in Arizona after the 2010 implementation of stop and search laws directed against potential illegal immigrants.

In October 2013, during an On Air with Ryan Seacrest interview, West explained what he thinks "female powers looks like" when he revealed Kim Kardashian's pitch for the cover of Vogue, challenging then-First Lady Michelle Obama to "post a sexy swimsuit photo."

In February 2016, West again became embroiled in controversy when he posted a tweet seemingly asserting Bill Cosby's innocence in the wake of over 50 women alleging he had sexually assaulted them.

West has made numerous statements against the COVID-19 vaccine.

West has supported legalization of cannabis in the United States.

When asked about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in February 2024, after the start of the Gaza war (2023–present), West said he was not educated enough to comment. The following September, before starting a Vultures 2 listening event, he displayed a photograph of a Palestinian olive tree. The photograph was taken during the First Intifada (1987–1993), and the gesture was interpreted as West expressing solidarity with Palestinians. In May 2025, West tweeted "free Gaza" with a Palestinian flag emoji.

Politics

In 2005, West appeared as a guest host during A Concert for Hurricane Relief, a benefit concert for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, alongside actor Mike Myers. West deviated from his script, criticizing the media's apparent disparity of the treatment of black victims as opposed to white victims of the devastating hurricane. He finished his speech by stating the now-infamous quote "George Bush doesn't care about black people", criticizing the United States' federal response to Katrina. He apologized for the comment in 2010, saying he "didn't have the grounds to call [Bush] a racist" and later stated in regard to the remark that he "was programmed to think from a victimized mentality".

Future president Barack Obama consulted with West during his 2008 presidential campaign, and West would perform at a Democratic National Committee party that August to support Obama's run for president, revealing on stage that he wished; "[his] momma could have seen this day". West would later post a portrait of Obama on his blog after his election win, with a message reading "HI MOM, OBAMA WON!". West performed alongside artists Fall Out Boy and Kid Rock at Obama's Youth Inaugural Ball in 2009, praising the newly inaugurated President Obama during his set.

In September 2012, West donated $1,000 to Barack Obama's re-election campaign, and in August 2015, he donated $2,700 to Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. He also donated $15,000 to the Democratic National Committee in October 2014.

In September 2015, West announced that he intended to run for President of the United States in 2020. Later that month, in an interview with Dirk Standen at West's Yeezy Season 2 show at New York Fashion Week, he spoke positively about Republican politician Ben Carson after a phone call with him. West later implied on Twitter that he intended to run for president in 2024 due to Donald Trump's win in the 2016 elections.

West later confirmed this in an interview in September 2018, saying that his main political concern is health care in the United States. On December 13, 2016, West met with President-elect Trump. According to West, "I wanted to meet with Trump today to discuss multicultural issues. These issues included bullying, supporting teachers, modernizing curriculums, and violence in Chicago. I feel it is important to have a direct line of communication with our future President if we truly want change."