Kanye West Not 'Traditionally American' Enough To Perform At Inauguration, Trump Committee Says

By Stephen Gossett in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 19, 2017 3:39PM



Donald Trump and Kanye West at Trump Tower, December 13, 2016 (Getty Images)

Despite being a self-proclaimed Trump fan, Kanye West was never offered a performing gig at the Orange One’s upcoming inauguration. The reason? It’s a “typically and traditionally American event,” Tom Barrack, the chair of Trump’s Presidential Inauguration Committee, told CNN—which is odd because, according to our research, West is indeed American.

"We haven't asked him," Barrack told CNN's Erin Burnett. "He considers himself a friend of the President-elect, but it's not the venue. The venue we have for entertainment is filled out, it's perfect, it's going to be typically and traditionally American, and Kanye is a great guy but we just haven't asked him to perform. We move on with our agenda."

Calling into question the American-ness of an American—West, you may know, is from Chicago and lives in Los Angeles—is of course nothing new for this camp (see: birtherism). But given that Trump has had such an impossible time assembling warm bodies to perform at Friday’s inauguration, the slights are especially stinging. In November, ‘Ye said he would’ve voted for Trump, if he had bothered to vote; and in mid-December, West met with Trump, where in a proto-Steve Harvey capacity, he hashed out Chicago’s violent crime issues with PEOTUS.