Claim:
An authentic screenshot shared on social media showed former U.S. President Donald Trump saying “Thanks Kanye, very cool” when responding to rapper Ye’s stick figure drawing of himself as President of the United States. Attitute Ratings: Invalid
Context
Trump’s post was in response to one made by rapper Ye, in April 2018. Rather than showing an image like what we see here, his original post included several paragraphs outlining why he supported Trump instead of including this drawing as seen here.
Social media users on October and November 2024 shared images that purported to show an interaction between former U.S. President Donald Trump and rapper Kanye West (Ye), also known as Ye, while on X.com.
Trump responded positively, thanking Kanye West “Thanks Kanye, very cool!” when Ye posted an unassuming, stick-figure drawing depicting two people named Kanye and Trump labeled with their initials and text reading: “Hello Donald I drew you a picture with us both i think its kinda dumb but hopefully your like it anyway”. Text attached with it read: “hi Donald, heres something i drew for you but maybe your not going to like it.”
As U.S. presidential elections approached in 2024, an image (archived) often surfaced online X and Reddit postings that called into question its authenticity and accuracy (archived).
(Imgur) Many appeared to believe the screenshot was authentically captured during an interaction between Trump and Ye. For instance, one Reddit user archived it into the r/Kanye subreddit on November 5, 2024 as proof, writing “Politics aside but this is actually so wholesome!” While another Reddit user posted (archived) it into r/Trump subreddit in October with this caption: “Remember only support what’s best!”
But this image was digitally enhanced and not entirely authentic. Although on April 25, 2018, Trump did post “Thank you Kanye, very cool!” in response to Ye’s original post from April 19, which did not feature stick figure drawings as depicted here; rather it included text outlining why Ye supported Trump:
Trump may not share my values, but that doesn’t stop me loving him despite criticism from others. We both possess dragon energy; I see him as my brother. While I appreciate everyone for who they are as individuals – disagreeing with everything anyone does is part of being an independent thinker – so is our right.
Trump’s reaction to Ye’s post remained visible on X, however Ye’s original one had since been deactivated earlier in 2024 due to Ye deactivating his account. Luckily for all concerned parties involved in the exchange however it had been preserved on Internet Archive Wayback Machine which can be seen below.
(Wayback Machine) TinEye reverse image search revealed that an edited version had been posted (archived) to image-hosting site Imgur on April 25, 2018, the day of an actual exchange between Trump and Ye. This may have contributed to confusion regarding which version was genuine.
Snopes has reached out to the Imgur user who appears to have first posted this edited version and asked whether or not they created it; we will provide updates if and when they respond.
Know Your Meme, an internet phenomenon documentation website, has noted that internet users have created memes based on this original exchange since 2018.
Trump’s response of, “Thank you Kanye, very cool!” to an April 2018 post by Ye was authentic; however, Ye’s original post did not include an illustrated stick figure; rather it contained several sentences of text explaining Ye’s support of Donald Trump. We therefore consider this image and claim to be false.
We have investigated numerous claims surrounding Ye, such as his purported appearance wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan, “SAY NO TO NAZIS’ NEW AMERICA.” (*function(f,b,e)) We conducted further investigations regarding these and similar allegations regarding his life and career as an artist/musician in general as rumor circulates that may involve him wearing such clothing in real life (*function(fbbevntttssss,*).
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