Kanye West took a break from his presidential campaign to praise conservative pundit and author Candace Owens for her book urging Black voters to leave the “Democrat plantation.”
On Thursday night, West tweeted “THANK YOU CANDACE OWENS” alongside a picture of the book, which is titled Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation.
“You’re welcome!” Owens tweeted in response. “Thank you for inspiring me to be myself, unapologetically. Dragon energy.”
West and Owens are two of the most prominent Black Americans to publicly support President Donald Trump. Although the pair have expressed admiration for each other on more than one occasion, they have also had at least one public dispute.
In 2018, Owens claimed that her “friend and fellow superhero” West designed t-shirts promoting her “Blexit” movement, which urges Black voters to leave the Democratic party and become Republicans, according to Page Six.
West quickly denied that he had taken part in the design, insisting that he instead introduced Owens to a designer who worked on the project. Owens later claimed that she had “never once” said that West designed the shirts.
West has been focused on his presidential campaign in recent months. His late entry, announced July 4, has hindered his success in the race. So far, he has made the ballot in 12 states.
Workers involved in a failed petition campaign aimed at getting West on the ballot in Wyoming explicitly urged voters to sign the petition to “take away” votes from former Vice President Joe Biden in order to help Trump.
Many have accused West of launching his presidential bid with the sole goal of boosting Trump’s chances, pointing out that Republican operatives have helped with the campaign, while Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner recently met with West.
However, polling indicates that West’s campaign has drawn little support from Black voters or anyone else. Some have also speculated that rather than taking votes from Biden, West’s campaign could siphon potential Trump voters instead.
Owens has been the subject of her own recent media attention after engaging in a heated Twitter spat with rapper Cardi B. A series of controversial statements in the past have also garnered attention.
One incident saw her defend the concept of nationalism while insisting that Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s plans would have been “fine” if he had avoided “globalism” and limited his actions to within the borders of Germany.
“If Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, okay, fine,” Owens said at an event in London in December 2018, according to The Washington Post. “The problem is that he wanted, he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalize.”