Kanye West's Saint Pablo tour stopped in San Jose, California on Thursday night, and, during the show, Kanye West paused his performance multiple times to discuss politics. At one point, Kanye said that he liked aspects of Donald Trump's campaign and said that, had he voted, he would've voted for Trump, as shown by fan videos and reports from the show. "I told y’all I didn’t vote, right?” he said. “But if I would’ve voted, I would’ve voted on Trump.”
Addressing members of the crowd, some of whom booed Kanye after the comment, the rapper said, "Thank you—that’s a woman right there, saying “I love you,” after I just said that there was things that I liked about Trump’s campaign. That’s not supposed to happen, right? Case in point. I guess we’re just not gonna sell out the rest of the tour now."
"I would have voted for Trump." - Kanye West pic.twitter.com/g9qxaT7aRc
— billy (@billycrossover) November 18, 2016
Kanye expanded on his statement in a 16-minute clip from the show, saying that the fact that he would've voted for Trump doesn't negate his social views. "That don’t mean that I don’t think that Black Lives Matter," he said. "That don’t mean I don’t think that I’m a believer in women’s rights. That don’t mean I don’t believe in gay marriage. That don’t mean that I don’t believe in these things because that was the guy I would’ve voted for."
He went on to say that many of his best friends and family supported Hillary Clinton and asked the crowd, "What percentage of people here voted for Trump? Out of the 15,000 people here...What do you really believe?"
At another junction, Kanye reaffirmed his 2020 presidential bid: "I don’t say 2020 out of disrespect to our president, at all. I’m not saying that, ‘Oh man, that just mean that anybody can win.’ That’s not what I’m saying when I say 2020. I just said, I got some ideas about the way we should connect our ideas."
Kanye also addressed racism in America: "Specifically to black people, stop focusing on racism. This world is racist, OK? Let’s stop being distracted to focus on that as much. It’s just a fucking fact," he told the crowd. "We are in a racist country, period. Do not allow people to make us talk about that so fucking long. Let’s talk about whatever the fuck you wanna talk about. Let’s stop talking about that, bro. It’s racist, OK? ... And not one or the other candidate was gonna instantly be able to change that because of their views. Bottom fucking line."
According to a fan, Kanye's political discussion lasted almost an hour during the show on Thursday night. Watch more clips from the show below.
A representative for Kanye West was not immediately available for comment.
"I told y'all I didn't vote... if I would've voted, I would've voted on Trump." - Kanye West @ComplexMag @HipHopDX @IamAkademiks pic.twitter.com/Vsh9nR0qNs
— Aries Nunez (@Aries_Nunez) November 18, 2016
Kanye West tonight speaking on racism in America. "Specifically to black people, stop talking about race so much." pic.twitter.com/HTWlJgdq7E
— Brandon E. Patterson (@myblackmindd) November 18, 2016
This post has been updated as new information became available.