--- title: Donald Trump Meets with Kanye West: 'He's a Good Man' description: Rapper Kanye West met with President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday morning—the latest in a series of surprising visitors to Trump Tower canonical: https://time.com/4599064/kanye-west-donald-trump-tower/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-13T15:25:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:16:43.510Z article:section: Politics og:title: Yes, Donald Trump Just Met With Kanye West og:description: "We've been friends for a long time" og:url: https://time.com/4599064/kanye-west-donald-trump-tower/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89841bc3a5861201/6988b2b3f887dc4704e987ae/kanye-west-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Political And Business Visitors At Trump Tower During President-Elect's Transition To The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Yes, Donald Trump Just Met With Kanye West twitter:description: "We've been friends for a long time" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89841bc3a5861201/6988b2b3f887dc4704e987ae/kanye-west-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Yes, Donald Trump Just Met With Kanye West  by [Katie Reilly](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Dec 13, 2016 3:25 PM CUT  Musician Kanye West arrives in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York on Dec. 13, 2016. Musician Kanye West arrives in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York on Dec. 13, 2016.John Taggart—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Dec 13, 2016 3:25 PM CUT Rapper [Kanye West](http://time.com/3822841/kanye-west-2015-time-100/ "undefined") met with [President-elect Donald Trump](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump-choice/?xid=homepage&pcd=hp-magmod "undefined") on Tuesday morning—the latest in a series of sometimes surprising visitors to Trump Tower. “Just friends. Just friends—and he’s a good man,” [Trump told reporters](https://twitter.com/cspan/status/808688358578786304 "undefined") in the lobby, responding to questions about the purpose of their meeting. “We’ve been friends for a long time.” “I just wanted to take a picture right now,” West said, when asked if he is considering performing at Trump’s inauguration or running for president in 2020. “So long, man, you take care of yourself. I’ll see you soon,” Trump said to West as they shook hands and parted ways. During a mid-concert rant last month, West said he [would have cast his ballot for Trump](http://fortune.com/2016/11/18/kanye-west-donald-trump/ "undefined")—if he had voted in the presidential election. “If I would’ve voted, I would’ve voted \[for\] Trump,” he said, calling Trump’s campaign approach “absolutely genius.” Trump has previously praised West as well. “You know what? I will never say bad about him, you know why? Because he loves Trump!” Trump said in September 2015, after West suggested he would [run for president in 2020](http://time.com/4048824/kanye-west-running-for-president/ "undefined"). “Kanye West has been so great.” > [](https://twitter.com/cspan/status/808678450718330880) > [](https://twitter.com/cspan/status/808688358578786304) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4599064/kanye-west-donald-trump-tower/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4599064/kanye-west-donald-trump-tower/"},"headline":"Yes, Donald Trump Just Met With Kanye West","datePublished":"2016-12-13T15:25:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:16:43.510Z","description":"\"We've been friends for a long time\"","url":"https://time.com/4599064/kanye-west-donald-trump-tower/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election topic","celebrities","Kanye West","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89841bc3a5861201/6988b2b3f887dc4704e987ae/kanye-west-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89841bc3a5861201/6988b2b3f887dc4704e987ae/kanye-west-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Political And Business Visitors At Trump Tower During President-Elect's Transition To The White House","caption":"Political And Business Visitors At Trump Tower During President-Elect's Transition To The White House","creditText":"John Taggart—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4599064/kanye-west-donald-trump-tower/","name":"Yes, Donald Trump Just Met With Kanye West"}}]}] ```