What Kanye West and Obama Have Said About Each Other From Insults to Intrigue

Kanye West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, has taken aim at former U.S. President Barack Obama in a series of Instagram posts on Sunday, December 4.

The Grammy-winning rapper returned to Instagram since being suspended from Twitter after he shared an image of a swastika inside a Star of David, which Twitter owner Elon Musk confirmed was the reason for the suspension.

West's comments follow his appearance on Alex Jones' InfoWars last week where he expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and said he "likes Nazis."

In a lengthy post, West said Musk is the child of a "Chinese genius" and a "South African supermodel." Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa and according to Forbes, has British and Pennslyvania Dutch ancestry.

He then continued: "They probably made 10 to 30 Elon's and he's the first genetic hybrid that stuck... well let's not forget about Obama.

"I'm sorry for using curse words in church but I don't have another word for Obama yet."

West signed off the post "YE24," his presidential campaign slogan.

This is not the first time the rapper has spoken against the former president. For over a decade, both men have made comments about one another. Newsweek has everything you need to know below.

2009

In 2009, West notoriously interrupted Taylor Swift on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards when she accepted the Moonman for Best Female Video.

Marching onto stage, West grabbed the mic and said: "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'ma let you finish. But Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time." He was heavily criticized for his actions by musicians, celebrities, and fans at the time, including Obama.

During a break in filming for a 2009 CNBC interview, Obama was heard stating: "he's a jack***," referring to the incident.

The footage of Obama speaking about West was leaked and subsequently went viral. West later apologized to Swift.

2012

In a 2012 interview with The Atlantic, Obama stood by his comment, telling the magazine, "he is jack*** but he is talented."

Obama added: "Although I like Kanye. He's a Chicago guy. Smart. He's very talented."

2013

By 2013, West appeared to put his differences with Obama behind him, telling radio station Boom 103.9 when asked about the president, "I don't care if someone is the president or not. I care about thoughts and how you helping people and what you bring to the world. I'm not gonna mention him no more, I'm past that. That's out of my thoughts. That's lowering my priority of thinking at this point."

2015

In 2015, a few comments were exchanged between Obama and West, although it was not exactly friendly between the two.

During a speech at Oxford University, West stated he could call Obama whenever he pleased and told students that Obama "calls the home phone, by the way."

However, soon after his comments were reported, Obama denied that the two even communicate, during an appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Kimmel.

In October 2015, Obama jokingly gave advice to West about running for president, after the rapper announced his plans to run at the 2015 VMAs.

Obama said: "You may have heard of this, Kanye is thinking about running for Speaker of the House. It couldn't get any stranger...But in case Kanye is serious about this whole POTUS thing—or as he calls it 'peezy' [West's nickname is Yeezy]—I do have advice for him."

Obama then went on to say that West's experience in dealing with reality stars may come in handy as he would be "dealing with some strange characters who behave like they're on a reality TV show" if he made it into politics.

He continued: "Second—this is a second important tip—saying you have a beautiful, dark, twisted fantasy, that's what's known as off-message. You can't say things like that. A lot of people have lost their congressional seats saying stuff like this."

The internet was further confused when reality TV star Kim Kardashian, West's wife at the time, posted an image of a card from Obama, which featured all three of them together. On the card, Obama had written, "To Kanye & Kim — Thanks for the support and best wishes to your lovely daughter!"

2016

Things appeared to have turned sour in April 2016, shortly after Trump won the 2016 presidential election. Around this time, West went public with his support for Trump, telling concert-goers he would have voted for Trump if he had used his vote.

On April 25, he tweeted: "Obama was in office for eight years and nothing in Chicago changed."

2018

In May 2018, West participated in a two-hour long interview with radio host Charlamagne tha God, where he criticized Obama for not apologizing to him after he called him a "jack***" in 2009.

He said: "The same person that sat down with me and my mom I think should've communicated to me directly and been like, 'Yo, 'Ye... You know what it is! I'm in the room—it was just a joke.'"

West also said Obama had previously told him that he was his favorite artist. The fashion designer said he felt excluded when fellow rappers like Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar were invited to the White House and he was not.

"I ain't got no problem with these rappers," West said. "But you know I'm your favorite."

"But I'm not safe. But that's why you love me. So just tell me you love me. And tell the world you love me. Don't tell the world I'm a jack***, I'm fighting hard enough," he said.

West continued: "Nobody's perfect. I love Obama. I'm sure we'll hang out, go to Richard Branson's island, whatever. It'll be cool."

"I just think we were in a period where, ya know, he had so much stuff to deal with, he couldn't deal with a wild card like me. I think that's too unpredictable, someone that wasn't being controlled by strategy and thoughts or someone who's acting on feelings," he said.

2022

In an interview with Fox's Tucker Carlson in October 2022, West said his "bond" with Obama "faded" after he moved away from what he "was supposed to say as a rapper."

Newsweek has contacted West and Obama's representatives for comment.