--- title: Trump Inauguration: Kanye West Interview VIDEO description: Donald Trump's team explained why Kanye West, has not been asked to perform at the inauguration. canonical: https://time.com/4639260/donald-trump-kanye-inauguration-performance/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-19T16:29:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:40:16.391Z og:title: Here's Why Kanye West Wasn't Asked to Perform at Donald Trump's Inauguration og:description: "Kanye is a great guy, but we just haven't asked him to perform" og:url: https://time.com/4639260/donald-trump-kanye-inauguration-performance/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfbd9898c15def76c/6988b2f47cdbacc950d56938/trump-kanye.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4031 og:image:height: 2267 og:image:alt: President-Elect Donald Trump Holds Meetings At Trump Tower og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Why Kanye West Wasn't Asked to Perform at Donald Trump's Inauguration twitter:description: "Kanye is a great guy, but we just haven't asked him to perform" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfbd9898c15def76c/6988b2f47cdbacc950d56938/trump-kanye.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump's Inauguration Chair Explains Why Kanye West Wasn't Asked to Perform > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jan 19, 2017 4:29 PM UTC  President-elect Donald Trump and Kanye West stand together in the lobby at Trump Tower, December 13, 2016 in New York City. President-elect Donald Trump and Kanye West stand together in the lobby at Trump Tower, December 13, 2016 in New York City.Drew Angerer—Getty Images by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jan 19, 2017 4:29 PM UTC Kanye West [made headlines](http://time.com/4599064/kanye-west-donald-trump-tower/) when he met with President-elect Donald Trump in Trump tower in December, but he won’t be [among the performers](http://time.com/4634892/toby-keith-trump-inauguration-performers/) at the [Inauguration](http://time.com/money/4637694/trump-inauguration-costs-obama-bush-performers/). Trump’s chair of his Presidential Inaugural Committee, Tom Barrack, said that the team did not invite the rapper to [perform at the inauguration](http://time.com/4609263/celebrities-on-donald-trump-inauguration-performance/) during an interview on [CNN’s _Outfont_](http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/05/politics/trump-inauguration-performers/). “We haven’t asked him. He considers himself a friend of the president-elect, but it’s not the venue. The venue we have for entertainment is filled out, it’s perfect, it’s going to be typically and traditionally American, and Kanye is a great guy, but we just haven’t asked him to perform. We move on with our agenda,” he told CNN’s Erin Burnett. The rap star had [publicly endorsed Trump](http://fortune.com/2016/11/18/kanye-west-donald-trump/) telling his audiences mid-concert, “If I would’ve voted, I would’ve voted \[for\] Trump,” and calling Trump’s campaign approach “absolutely genius.” Following their December meeting, Trump told reporters they were “Just friends. Just friends—and he’s a good man.” West later [said he met with Trump](http://time.com/4599983/kanye-west-donald-trump-meeting/) with goal of discussing “multicultural issues.” The Rockettes, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Jackie Evancho, are scheduled to perform for the inaugural ceremonies, while Toby Keith, 3 Doors Down, Lee Greenwood are slated to appear at the kickoff event. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4639260/donald-trump-kanye-inauguration-performance/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4639260/donald-trump-kanye-inauguration-performance/"},"headline":"Donald Trump's Inauguration Chair Explains Why Kanye West Wasn't Asked to Perform","datePublished":"2017-01-19T16:29:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:40:16.391Z","description":"\"Kanye is a great guy, but we just haven't asked him to perform\"","url":"https://time.com/4639260/donald-trump-kanye-inauguration-performance/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics","Music","Kanye West","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfbd9898c15def76c/6988b2f47cdbacc950d56938/trump-kanye.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfbd9898c15def76c/6988b2f47cdbacc950d56938/trump-kanye.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President-Elect Donald Trump Holds Meetings At Trump Tower","caption":"President-Elect Donald Trump Holds Meetings At Trump Tower","creditText":"Drew Angerer—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":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4639260/donald-trump-kanye-inauguration-performance/","name":"Donald Trump's Inauguration Chair Explains Why Kanye West Wasn't Asked to Perform"}}]}] ```