DONALD TRUMP: ... The greatest of all time. And what I, what people don't know, Kanye, everybody knows, right? Does the world know, Kanye? What people – Kanye – what people don't know about you [Brown]? They say, first of all he's the best football player. But they say he was even better lacrosse player. Do you think so? Huh?

JIM BROWN: I never thought about it.

DONALD TRUMP: I've heard he was, even at Syracuse.

JIM BROWN: Yes, I loved it. A real love for it.

DONALD TRUMP: Well, it's great to have you, Jim. Thank you. Kanye, it's great to be with you.

JIM BROWN: Great to be here with you.

DONALD TRUMP: And these are two friends of mine. And Kanye's been a friend of mine for a long time, and Jim has – Jim came out of nowhere and he said, "I like what the president's doing." A long time ago we met, right? And I just appreciate it very much. And you know, if you look at the employment numbers, if you look at the median income, if you look at every single indicator, we're keeping our promise, Jim. Thank you.

JIM BROWN: I like North Korea.

DONALD TRUMP: I like North Korea too.

JIM BROWN: [UNINTELLIGIBLE]

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah. Yeah. Well, he's – turned out to be good. Dialogue. We had a little dialogue. And the secretary of state just came back, Mike, he just came back from North Korea. We had very good meetings, and we'll meet again. But we're doing good. No more nuclear testing, no more missiles going up, no more nothing. And it's – that was headed to war. That was headed to war.

JIM BROWN: Yeah, to me it seemed like –

DONALD TRUMP: Yep. It was so close. I spoke, I spoke to President Obama. I will tell you, that was headed to war. And now it's going to be, I believe it's going to work out very well.

KANYE WEST: And stopped the war.

DONALD TRUMP: We really stopped the war, saved millions of lives. You know, Seoul has 30 million people. You don't realize how big, 30 million people right near the border, 30 miles off the border. Millions of people would have been killed. And I will say, Chairman Kim has been really good. Really good, and we've made a lot of progress. That's nice that you say that, because that's a big – that's a big thing. These folks were covering, they were covering North Korea not, I think not very promisingly. And there were a lot of problems. President Obama said that was his biggest problem. And I don't say anything's solved –

KANYE WEST: [UNINTELLIGIBLE] one of the biggest problems, in all, one of the biggest problems –

DONALD TRUMP: Yes, it was a big, it was a big solving. And not solved yet but I think we're a long – I think we're on the way.

JIM BROWN: [UNINTELLIGIBLE]

DONALD TRUMP: No, no, it's, we're well on our way.

JIM BROWN: [UNINTELLIGIBLE]

DONALD TRUMP: In a short period of time, Jim. Very short period of time. You know, I left Singapore three months ago and we've made a lot of progress. So it's very good. That's one of many things. And I appreciate everything with you. I tell you what. Kim was in. Mrs. Johnson, we got her out. She was very unfairly treated. And there are many other people like that, that –

KANYE WEST: We've got Larry Hoover's lawyer with us today, and it's a prisoner that we're focused on. He has six life sentences, and they have him next to the Unabomber doing 23 at once. That means he's –

DONALD TRUMP: What did he do, Larry? What did he do?

LAWYER: Why is he in?

DONALD TRUMP: Yes, tell me. Tell us the story.

LAWYER: Allegedly it's for conspiracy from prison, from state prison, you know, it's alleged, but we do believe even if he did commit those crimes, the sentence was overly broad and too strict.

DONALD TRUMP: What was the sentence?

LAWYER: Six consecutive life sentences in the most secure prison in the world, also known as the clean version of hell, for basically an economic crime.

KANYE WEST: What prison is that? Name the prison.

LAWYER: ADX Supermax in Florence, Colorado. They house the Unabomber, al Qaeda operatives, mass-killers, Oklahoma City bomber, things of that nature.

DONALD TRUMP: How old is he? How old?

LAWYER: Sixty-eight.

DONALD TRUMP: He's 68 years old?

PERSON X: Yes, he's 68 years old.

KANYE WEST: And really, the reason why they imprisoned him is because he started doing positive for the community. He started showing that he actually had power, that he wasn't just one of a monolithic voice, but he could wrap people around. So there's theories that there's infinite amounts of universe, and there's alternate universe, so it's very important for me to get Hoover out because in an alternate universe I am him, and I have to go and get him free. Because he was doing positive inside of Chicago just like I'm moving back to Chicago and it's not just about, you know, getting on stage and being an entertainer and having a monolithic voice that's forced to be a specific party. You know, people expect that if you're black, you have to be Democrat. I have a – I have conversations that basically said that welfare is the reason why a lot of black people end up being Democrat. They say, you know, first of all, it's a limit to amount of jobs. So the fathers lose the jobs, and they say, "We'll give you more money for having more kids in your home." And then we got rid of the mental health institutes in the '80s and the '90s, and the prison rates just shot up. And now you have Chi-raq, what people call Chi-raq – which is actually, our murder rate is going down by 20 per cent every year. I just talked to the superintendent, met with Michael Sacks, that's Rahm's right-hand man. So I think it's the bravery that helps you beat this game called life. You know, they tried to scare me to not wear this hat. My own friends. But this hat, it gives me – it gives me power in a way. You know, my dad and my mom separated, so I didn't have a lot of male energy in my home. And also, I'm married to a family that, uh, you know, not a lot of male energy going on. It's beautiful, though. But there's times where, you know, it's something about, you know – I love Hillary. I love everyone, right? But the campaign, "I'm with her," just didn't make me feel, as a guy that didn't get to see my dad all the time, like a guy that could play catch with his son. It was something about, when I put this hat on, it made me feel like Superman. You made a Superman – that's my favorite super hero. And you made a Superman cape for me. Also as a guy that looks up to you, looks up to Ralph Lauren, looks up to American industry guys, non-political, no bulls**t – put the beep on it, however you want to do it, five seconds delay – and just goes in and gets it done. Right now, you gave me the heart to go to Adidas. Because at Adidas, when I went in in 2015, we're a $14 billion company losing $2 billion a year. Now we have a $38 billion market cap. It's called the "Yeezy Effect." And I went to Casper. We had a meeting in Chicago. And I said, "You have to bring manufacturing onshore." And not even shore. Into the core! It's not about the borders, the core of Adidas. And Chicago is the core of middle America, and we have to make middle America strong. So I had the balls, because I had enough the balls to put on this hat. I mean, this Adidas thing made me a billionaire, and I could have lost $200 million walking away from that deal. But even with that, I knew it was more important for me to take the chance of walking away from that deal than to have no fathers in Chicago, with no homes. And when we do have prison reformation, for no – because it's habilitation, not rehabilitation, because we didn't have the abilities in the first place. We never had anyone who taught us. They didn't teach us. And exactly: "We didn't have no one that taught us," right? So it's more important than any specific deal, anything, that we bring jobs into America. And that we provide a transition with mental health and the American education curriculum that Jim has worked on, Larry Hoover also has a curriculum that he's worked on. We have Montessori curriculums that we worked on. WeWorks has a beautiful curriculum. The Waldorf establishment has a curriculum. We have meditation. There's a lot of things affecting our mental health that makes us do crazy things, that puts us back into that trap door called the 13th Amendment. I did say "abolish," with the hat on. Because why would you keep something around that's a trap door? If you're building a floor, the Constitution is the base of our industry, right? Of our country, of our company. Would you build a trap door that if you mess up and you accidentally, something happens, you fall and you end up next to the Unabomber? You end up – you've got to remove all that trap door out of the relationship. The four gentleman that wrote the 13th Amendment? And I think the way the universe works, it's perfect. We don't have 13 floors, do we? You know, so the four gentlemen that wrote the 13th Amendment didn't look like the people they were amending. Also, at that point it was illegal for blacks to read, or African-Americans to read, and so that meant if you actually read the amendment, you'd get locked up! And turned into a slave. Again, so what I think is we don't need sentences, we need partners. We need to talk to people. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I was connected with a neuropsychologist that works with the athletes in the NBA and the NFL. And he looked at my brain, it's equal on three parts. I'm going to go ahead, drop some bombs to you: 98th percentile IQ test. I had a 75 percentile of all human beings but it was counting eight numbers backwards off, there was repeating. So I'm going to work on that one. The other ones, 98 per cent. Tesla. Freud. You know, so he said that I actually wasn't bipolar. I had sleep deprivation which could cause dementia 10 to 20 years from now, where I wouldn't even remember my son's name. So all this power that I get, and I'm taking my son to the Sox game and all that? I wouldn't be able to remember his name – from a misdiagnosis. And what we need is, we can empower the pharmaceuticals and make more money. That's one thing. I've never stepped into a situation where I didn't make people more money. So we can empower pharmaceuticals. We can empower our industries. We can empower our factories. We can bring not only Adidas onshore, we can bring Foxconn and set up a factory in, I think, Minnesota. Fifth-three thousand –

DONALD TRUMP: Wisconsin, yeah. Wisconsin.

KANYE WEST: Yeah, Wisconsin. They have 4,000 jobs. People making $53,000 a year. And one of the things we've got to set is Ford, to have the highest design. The dopest cars. The most amazing. I don't really say "dope." I don't say negative words and try to flip them. We just say positive, lovely, divine, universal words. So the flyest, freshest, most amazing car. And what we want to start with is – I brought a gift with me right here. This right here is the I-plane One. It's a hydrogen-powered airplane, and this is what our president should be flying in. Look at this, Jared.

DONALD TRUMP: We'll get rid of Air Force One. Can we get rid of Air Force One? No? You don't like that.

KANYE WEST: Well, we're going to have Apple, an American company, work on this plane with – but you know what I don't like about – it's not that I don't like – what I need Saturday Night Live to improve on, and what I need the liberals to improve on, is: If he don't look good, we don't look good. This is our president.

DONALD TRUMP: It's true.

KANYE WEST: He has to be the freshest, the flyest, the flyest planes, the best factories. And we have to make our core be empowered. We have to bring jobs into America. Because our best export is entertainment ideas. But when we make everything in China and not in America, then we're cheating on our country. And we're putting people in positions to have to do illegal things to end up in the cheapest factory ever, the prison system.

DONALD TRUMP: I'll tell you what, that was pretty impressive, folks. You know, I hate to say this, Jim, you want to say something too? What do you do after that?

JIM BROWN: You don't mind if I –

DONALD TRUMP: You are fantastic. Please, Jim, please.

JIM BROWN: Alright. He don't look good, we don't look good.

DONALD TRUMP: Great, right?

JIM BROWN: Yes it is.

DONALD TRUMP: Isn't that a great statement? And it's so true. As a country, it's so true. Very impressive. I've never seen Jim Brown impressed before. He was impressed. That's true. That statement is amazing, huh?

JIM BROWN: Yes, it makes a lot of sense.

DONALD TRUMP: I want to tell you, it's great to have you guys with us. And we're going to go in, we're going to have some lunch. That was quite something. That was quite something.

KANYE WEST: It was from the soul. I just channeled it.

DONALD TRUMP: Yes, it's really very interesting.

REPORTER: Quick question?

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, sure, please.

REPORTER: So you had said of President Bush that he doesn't care about black people. And you've heard some people say that about this president. What do you, how do you respond to that? What do you make of that?

KANYE WEST: I think we need to care about all people. And I believe that when I went onto NBC, I was very emotional and I was programmed to think from a victimized mentality, of a welfare mentality. I think that with blacks and African-Americans, we really get caught up in the idea of racism over the idea of industry. We say if people don't have land, they settle for brands. We want Polo supporting Obama again. We want a brand more than we want land. Because we haven't known how it feels to actually have our own land, and have ownership of our own blocks. So when you don't have ownership, then it's all about how something looks. It's about the patina, it's not about the soul, and it's not about the core. So we focus more on, is somebody wearing something, does someone disrespect me so I've got to, I've got to shoot them? Or the idea of someone being racist? You know, we talk about police murders, which we definitely have to discuss, and we have to bring nobility to the police officers and make them – because the police officers are just like us. But there's just this whole hate building, right? And that's a major thing about racial tension. And we also, as black people we have to take a responsibility for what we're doing. We kill each other more police officers. And that's not saying that the police officer is not an issue, because they are in a place, a position of power. But sometimes they're in placement of law enforcement. They need to be law power. It's force versus power. When you have – you shouldn't have to force people to do that. So a lot of times the police officer is sitting there, they're being forced to do this and forced to do that block. And then they force somebody into something, and forces something. We have to release the love throughout the entire country, and give opportunities. A lot of times it's just the overall lack of reparations that we – at any given point, we say, "Aw, this is racist, this is racist, this is racist, this is racist." So we don't have the reparations, but we have the 13th Amendment. We've got to open up the whole conversation. So – and that's a move – one of the moves I love that liberals try to do, a liberal would try to control a black person through the concept of racism, because they know that we're a very proud, emotional people. So when I said, "I like Trump," to, like, someone that's liberal, they'll say, "Oh, but he's racist." You think racism can control me? Oh, that don't stop me. That's an invisible wall.

REPORTER: Mr. West, what would you like? –

REPORTER: So you reject those who say he's racist?

KANYE WEST: Your question. You had one question, so we're moving to another question. I answered your question. I don't answer questions in simple sound bites. You are tasting a fine wine. It has multiple notes to it. You better play 4-D chess with me like it's "Minority Report." Because it ain't that simple. It's complex.

REPORTER: Mr. West, what would you like – I'm from the Chicago Sun-Times so I would like to know what you ask president Trump to do for Chicago. We heard you talk about crime in Chicago.

KANYE WEST: The thing that the head of the police and Matt Sacks met with me last night at the Soho House about, was we feel that "stop and frisk" does not help the relationships in the city. And everyone that knew I was coming here said, "Ask about stop and frisk." That's – that's the number one thing that we're having this conversation about. Another thing is opening up industries. And we've got to get some tax breaks too. Because we know, we're making – we got a speed factory in Atlanta but the shoes are costing us $300. So it's costing us too much to make things. So we need some prototypes here so we can get people back working, so China can't just beat us and Vietnam can't beat us. You've got Levis, the greatest jeans company in the world, making their jeans in Vietnam. So we're going to need to get a few breaks to be able to have some places in my hometown of Chicago, and the 2.7 million, to the 9 million [in the] surrounding suburbs, where we can create some factories. Now I think it would be cooler for them to be Trump factories because he's a master of industry, he's a builder. And I think it would be cool to have "Yeezy Ideation Centers," which would be a mix of education that empowers people and gives them modern information. Like sometimes people say, "This kid has ADD, this kid has ADD." He don't have ADD! School is boring! It was boring. It's not as exciting as this. We have to make it more exciting. We have to mix curriculums. You play basketball while you're doing math. You learn about music while you meditate in the morning. We have to instate mental health and art programs back into the city. So those are – and also, Larry Hoover is an example of a man that was turning his life around, and as soon as he tried to turn his life around they hit him with six life sentences. So I believe he's – you say, "Don't tear down the statues"? Larry Hoover is a living statue. He's a beacon for us that needs to see his family, that needs to go out and represent. When you have a block leader on every single block, they can own the block as their own. That's something I learned from Jim Brown, from Amer-I-Can. We need to put curriculums, from people who really came from the streets, not people who are just trying to set us up to go into a work system or prison system, that applies to what people are really going through. Which Jim Brown has created.

REPORTER: What about gun violence, with all the debate about the Second Amendment going on?

KANYE WEST: The problem is illegal guns. Illegal guns is the problem, not legal guns. We have the right to bear arms.

REPORTER: President Trump has said that he favors "stop and frisk." Are you guys going to be discussing that? Do you think you can change his mind?

KANYE WEST: Yes, we're going to discuss that. I didn't mean to put you on blast like that, bro.

DONALD TRUMP: No, no, that's okay. Hey, I'm open-minded, I'm here. I am open-minded.

REPORTER: Mr. President, would you like him to speak at one of your rallies?

DONALD TRUMP: He can speak for me any time he wants. He's been there. Great guy. He's a smart cookie. Smart. He gets it. These two guys, Jim Brown, he's been doing this for a long time.

REPORTER: Is this a future presidential candidate?

DONALD TRUMP: Uh, could very well be.

KANYE WEST: Only after, it would be 2024.

DONALD TRUMP: That's good, I'm glad to hear that.

KANYE WEST: We have a good – and the thing is, let's stop worrying about the future. All we really have is today. We just have today. Over and over and over again. The eternal returns and the hero’s journey. And Trump is on his hero's journey right now, and he might not have expected to have a crazy motherf****r like Kanye West run up and support. But best believe, we are going to make America great. Now the thing is, my – another thing is black people have an issue with the word "again." And I believe, my feeling from that is because I’m going to throw – I'm going to go all the way [unintelligible] because time is a myth. All we have is now. All we have is today. So the word "again," it doesn't hurt us because of the idea of racism and slavery, and different things. It hurts us because we need to focus on who we are now, today, I believe. So I actually brought some hats in that have a bit of a transition. I'm not trying to put you – I'll put you on the spot a little bit. I made a hat that says "Make America Great." Just that. But I would love to see at the Super Bowl, Trump wearing the "Make America Great" hat. Colin [Kaepernick] wearing the "Make America Great. And showing that we can bend a bit on this side, we can bend a bit on this side. And we can learn how to be malleable in the infinite universe that we are, and the loving beings that we are. That we don't have to stick to our old traditions. And that we aren't a side. We are one unit. We are one country. We are one moment in history, in time. We might have been here before, but right now we're here together. And the greatest value that people have are other people. And we need to stop working on red and blue. It's like a gang again.

DONALD TRUMP: Let me ask you this question. You're in the Oval Office. How does it feel to be in the Oval Office?

KANYE WEST: Oh, it is good energy in this.

DONALD TRUMP: Isn't it good energy?

KANYE WEST: It's good energy.

DONALD TRUMP: It's a great place. Jim, how do you feel?

JIM BROWN: I feel good.

DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.

JIM BROWN: I truly feel good. And thank you, too.

DONALD TRUMP: You are so respected. And what Kanye's doing has been incredible. All over the world they're talking about this. And I have to tell you, I had important meetings today with senators and with everything. Nobody cared! They wanted this meeting! This is the meeting. Is that right? I can say that to Jon.

REPORTER: Oh, we care about – you know –

DONALD TRUMP: No, the others were good, right, but this is what they want.

JIM BROWN: They knew you would be there.

DONALD TRUMP: Well, it's my honor, Jim. I want to tell you, I've been a fan of yours for a long time. Long time. [There's] nobody like you. Nobody like you. No athlete like you.

JIM BROWN: Well, you know why I’m here? I’m here to serve.

DONALD TRUMP: Well, that's really nice, man.

JIM BROWN: I’m not going to ask for anything. I'm here to contribute.

DONALD TRUMP: Well, and you know, that's always been the way Jim has been. For a long time. And he just wanted to help. And it's something special. Jennifer, did you have a question?

REPORTER: Um, I guess, just you, what do you think about stop and frisk? Are you going to, you know, backtrack –?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, we're going to look at it. I'm open to everything. Hey, look, I think it's a shame what's happening in Chicago.

REPORTER: I mean, what else can be done in Chicago?

DONALD TRUMP: I'm in Chicago a lot too. I have nice things in Chicago. You know that, right? And I hate to see what's happening. They're having numbers that – numbers of people being shot and killed. And it's not for this country. So they have to do something. And I am totally open. If we can do it a different way, Kanye, I’m totally open. But they have to do – I mean, we all agree they have to do something. That's for sure.

REPORTER: Mr. President, is it a law enforcement issue, a legislation or legislative issue?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, maybe it's a combination of both. I guess it is, but I think it's probably a combination of both. And it's also a respect issue. They respect this guy. They respect this guy. That's a big thing. Right now they're not respecting, let's say, your mayor or let's say your leadership in Chicago. But certainly it shouldn't be happening. What's going on there shouldn't be happening. Steve, go ahead.

REPORTER: What do you want this meeting to lead to, in terms of –

DONALD TRUMP: Honestly, from our standpoint this was just set up to be a lunch, of two people that I like. And I guess they like me. And we're going to have lunch. And we're going to talk.

KANYE WEST: You said "respect." I guess you know I love you. Did I, did I –

DONALD TRUMP: But I don't want to take – I don't want to put you in that spot.

KANYE WEST: No, I’m standing in that spot. I love this guy right here. Let me give this guy a hug right there. I love this guy right here.

DONALD TRUMP: That's really nice. Come here. That's really nice. And that's from the heart. I didn't want to put you in that position. But that's from the heart. Special guy. These two are special people. Whether you like it, whether you don't like it, they're special people. And I appreciate it. Jim, Kanye, I appreciate it. So let's go have some lunch, okay? Thank you all very much.