Ariana Grande canceled a planned appearance on S.N.L.’s season premiere—but producer Lorne Michaels also had someone he can always count on to make headlines in the bag. Kanye West—who has appeared on six previous episodes, as well as the 40th-anniversary special—showed up to perform “I Love It” and “We Got Love” Then, in lieu of the traditional cast farewell over the closing credits, West grabbed his MAGA hat and the mic once more for a third song: “Ghost Town.”

Twitter was already digging into Kanye for both the hat and his lackluster performances on those songs when footage of the singer that didn’t make it to air appeared online. After he finished his final song, video of West captured by a laughing, astonished Chris Rock popped up on Instagram. The singer can be seen rambling about the Democrats, Get Out’s “The Sunken Place,” and Donald Trump.

West spoke about the criticism he’s received for supporting Trump: “So many times I talk to a white person and [they] say, ‘How could you like Trump, he’s racist?’ Well, if I was concerned about racism, I would have moved out of America a long time ago.” He touched on the “Democrat” agenda of taking “fathers out the home and promote welfare.” He also pushed back on the widespread Get Out memes about his friendship with Trump: “You wanna see the sunken place? O.K., I’ma listen to y’all now. I’ma put my Superman cape on because this means you can’t tell me what to do. . . . You want the world to move forward? Try love.” But “love” doesn’t exactly describe the reaction West is receiving online.

Behind West in the footage, you can see several cast members and host Adam Driver looking at times confused and taken aback. Head writer Colin Jost starts shaking his head and laughing, as does Rock—who at one point seems to whisper “my god” from behind his phone’s camera. According to an eyewitness who spoke with Variety, “The entire studio fell dead silent“ as West carried on. In conclusion, West turned around and thanked the cast for the platform, “even though some of y’all don’t agree.”

No matter your political affiliation, it was a truly bizarre way to end an already bizarre evening.

But this is an especially strange look for S.N.L. which has positioned itself since the 2016 election as a hard-hitting voice for the liberal “resistance.” The season premiere, in fact, dedicated numerous sketches and the bulk of its “Weekend Update” segment to bashing Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the right-wing politicians who endorse him.