A timeline of President Trump and Kanye West's friendship

On the Fourth of July, Kanye West announced he’s running for president in 2020.
West has enjoyed an unlikely — and public — friendship with President Trump since before the latter entered the Oval Office.
West’s relationship with Trump is much more cordial than his relationships with former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
In a July 2020 Forbes interview, West said he doesn’t support Trump anymore and that he was “taking the red hat off, with this interview.”
The White House and Kanye West’s representatives didn’t immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment for this article.
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Rapper and newly minted billionaire Kanye West celebrated the Fourth of July by tweeting out his 2020 bid for president. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his wife Kim Kardashian West each sent support tweets.

West has enjoyed a very public friendship with the current occupant of the White House over the years.

“One of the main reasons I wore the red hat as a protest to the segregation of votes in the Black community. Also, other than the fact that I like Trump hotels and the saxophones in the lobby,” West told Forbes in July 2020.

In the same Forbes interview, West added that he was “taking the red hat off” and that Trump was losing his support because “it looks like one big mess,” specifically alluding to reports of Trump hiding inside a bunker during the Black Lives Matter protests in May. Trump has maintained that he was inspecting the bunker.

Here’s a look inside West and Donald Trump’s camaraderie over the years.