On Tuesday night, left-wing late-night host Jimmy Kimmel once again spoke condescendingly of Kanye West, issuing the most backhanded of backhanded compliments — that managed to get one essential detail wrong.
West set the internet ablaze once again with a single tweet Tuesday announcing that he was stepping back from politics after coming to realize that he’d been “used” to promote messages he doesn’t endorse.
“My eyes are now wide open and now realize I’ve been used to spread messages I don’t believe in,” West wrote. “I am distancing myself from politics and completely focusing on being creative.”
Before posting that comment, Kanye issued a tweet referencing Candace Owens’ “Blexit” campaign, which encourages African Americans to leave the Democratic Party. Many believed initially that West was behind it, but he made clear that he has “nothing to do with it.”
“I introduced Candace to the person who made the logo and they didn’t want their name on it so she used mine,” he wrote. “I never wanted any association with Blexit. I have nothing to do with it.”
Despite the context of his comment about being “used,” Trump critics interpreted his statement as an indirect reference to the president. One of those Trump critics was Kimmel, who, as THR reports, celebrated that West’s “voices in his head” were finally “starting to talk sense.”
“Now the president doesn’t even have Kanye anymore,” said Kimmel, sharing West’s second tweet about distancing himself from politics. “Finally, the voices in his head are starting to talk sense.”
Kimmel then announced in a racially charged comment: “And if there are any black celebrities out there who would like to be the president’s only African-American supporter, that position is now officially open.”
The only problem is that Kimmel, once again, got a key detail wrong. In comments to TMZ Tuesday following his “used” tweet, West made clear that he wasn’t talking about President Trump at all.
“Kanye contacted us to make it clear he did not mention Donald Trump in his tweets, and he’s getting out of politics altogether,” TMZ reported. “As for being ‘used’ … he says he was specifically referencing Blexit, and that’s it.”
To the disappointment of Trump critics, West’s tweet wasn’t him trashing Trump; and just because he’s “distancing” himself from politics doesn’t mean he no longer supports the president, as Kimmel wants his audience to believe.
As The Daily Wire reported, West appeared on Kimmel’s show in August and said a bunch of things that clearly made the left-wing host uncomfortable.
“As a musician, African-American, guy out in Hollywood, all these different things, everyone around me tried to pick my candidate for me,” West told Kimmel about his decision to support Trump. “And then told me every time I said I liked Trump that I couldn’t say it out loud or my career would be over, I’d get kicked out of the black community — because blacks, we’re supposed to have a monolithic thought … we can only be Democrats and all.”
Related: Kanye Disappoints Trump Critics In Follow-Up Comment About ‘Being Used’