Last Thursday, Kanye West once again showed his loyal support for President Trump and his campaign by having a meeting with the President over lunch in the Oval Office of the White House. This meeting allowed the media to film and document what happened, which very quickly made this meeting a national trending news story. The meeting was originally created to discuss social issues such as workforce programs, African-American employment and prison reforms, but was quickly turned into a publicity stunt. According to multiple sources, West started on a rant speaking about everything from Trump’s trade policies, to his wife Kim Kardashian and even “infinite amounts of universe”.

After West’s rant was over, the media and president were completely baffled. According to CNN, Trump was recorded saying, “That was quite something,” right after the media started to laugh at West’s comments.

West later commented on his rant at the meeting by saying, “It was from the soul. I just channeled it,” he continued adding that Trump, “ might not have expected to have a crazy motherf—er like Kanye West supporting him.” Many people around the country speculated West’s support for Trump was fictional and only for the fame, but this meeting has changed the minds of most doubters about West’s intentions.

After hearing about the meeting, I wanted to hear from other students at SWHS about what they thought about the situation. I recently spoke with junior Jacob Chamivoitch about his thoughts about the meeting. He  wasn’t too aware of the meeting, but had knew what happen and had some feelings towards. He said, “While I didn’t follow it all the much, it does scare me a little that Kanye, of all people, is on the ‘good’ side of someone like Trump. “ He also had opinions on West’s previous statement on his run for the presidency in 2020, “If Kanye does end up sticking with his word and runs for President in 2020, it won’t be a fun experience for me at least.” Many other students feel the way Jacob does.

This event has also lead to a lot people suggesting that West’s mental health is starting to worsen. Over the summer, West opened up about his fight with mental illness over the summer in a interview with Charlamagne tha god. West said in the interview that he did not go to therapy, but instead finds that talking to friends and family about his struggle has worked for him. With the recent events with Trump, could his mental illness be playing a role in his actions? Is this the new reality of how the government operates with celebrities?