--- title: John Legend Calls Kanye West's Trump Meeting Publicity Stunt description: John Legend was candid when asked about his frequent collaborator Kanye West's meeting with Donald Trump on Tuesday. canonical: https://time.com/4602602/john-legend-kanye-west-publicity-stunt/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-14T21:31:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:37.086Z og:title: John Legend Calls Kanye's Trump Meeting a "Publicity Stunt" og:description: Legend and West have been long-time collaborators og:url: https://time.com/4602602/john-legend-kanye-west-publicity-stunt/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93364d199f9b784a/6988b2fde20a873734a93898/john-legend-kanye-west-donald-trump-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: 2015 MTV Video Music Awards - Backstage og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Legend Calls Kanye's Trump Meeting a "Publicity Stunt" twitter:description: Legend and West have been long-time collaborators twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93364d199f9b784a/6988b2fde20a873734a93898/john-legend-kanye-west-donald-trump-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John Legend Says Kanye West's Meeting with Donald Trump Was a 'Publicity Stunt' > 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. ## Video: Yes, Donald Trump Just Met With Kanye West [Watch (HLS stream): Yes, Donald Trump Just Met With Kanye West](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lENyrXRN.m3u8) (1:03)  _Published 2016-12-13. "We've been friends for a long time"_  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Dec 14, 2016 9:31 PM UTC  John Legend and Kanye West attend the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/MTV1415/FilmMagic) John Legend and Kanye West attend the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/MTV1415/FilmMagic) Jeff Kravitz/MTV1415—FilmMagic  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Dec 14, 2016 9:31 PM UTC While [Kanye West’s meeting with president-elect Donald Trump](http://time.com/4599064/kanye-west-donald-trump-tower/) has elicited [no small number of celebrity reactions](http://time.com/4599582/celeb-reactions-kanye-west-trump-tower/), one in particular holds a significant amount of weight — that of his [frequent musical collaborator, John Legend](http://time.com/4476379/john-legend-activism-fatherhood-music/). During an interview with [_Clique_](http://www.complex.com/music/2016/12/john-legend-calls-kanye-west-meeting-with-donald-trump-publicity-stunt) in France, Legend was candid with his thoughts about Kanye’s meeting with Trump, going so far as to call it a “publicity stunt.” “I don’t think it’s impossible to talk to \[Donald Trump\] about issues, but I won’t be used as a publicity stunt,” Legend said. “I think Kanye was a publicity stunt. I’m pretty disappointed with Kanye that he says he would have voted for Trump. I think Trump has been corrosive, his message has been corrosive to the country. I think the things he’s promised to do have been very concerning for a lot of people, and for Kanye to support that message is very disappointing.” Legend, who belongs to West’s G.O.O.D. Music label, did not hold back on his criticism of the [president-elect.](http://people.com/celebrity/john-legend-donald-trump-jr-twitter-feud/) Watch the interview below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4602602/john-legend-kanye-west-publicity-stunt/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4602602/john-legend-kanye-west-publicity-stunt/"},"headline":"John Legend Says Kanye West's Meeting with Donald Trump Was a 'Publicity Stunt'","datePublished":"2016-12-14T21:31:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:37.086Z","description":"Legend and West have been long-time collaborators","url":"https://time.com/4602602/john-legend-kanye-west-publicity-stunt/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","Music","Kanye West","celebrity","Donald Trump","Culture","john legend"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93364d199f9b784a/6988b2fde20a873734a93898/john-legend-kanye-west-donald-trump-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93364d199f9b784a/6988b2fde20a873734a93898/john-legend-kanye-west-donald-trump-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2015 MTV Video Music Awards - Backstage","caption":"2015 MTV Video Music Awards - Backstage","creditText":"Jeff Kravitz/MTV1415—FilmMagic","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/4602602/john-legend-kanye-west-publicity-stunt/","name":"John Legend Says Kanye West's Meeting with Donald Trump Was a 'Publicity Stunt'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Yes, Donald Trump Just Met With Kanye West","description":"\"We've been friends for a long time\"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/lENyrXRN/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-12-13T15:34:22.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lENyrXRN.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4602602/john-legend-kanye-west-publicity-stunt/","duration":"PT1M3S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4602602/john-legend-kanye-west-publicity-stunt/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```