DONALD Trump is a fan of Kanye West – but he insisted he hasn't helped him get on the presidentialballot in any states.
President Trump addressed West's attempts at a third-party bid for the presidency on Wednesday, saying he "likes" the rapper and his wife Kim Kardashian West.
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“I like him. He's always been very nice to me," he said of West.
“I get along with him very well, I like him, I like his wife.”
When asked at a press briefing about claims that West is being helped by Republican operatives in his efforts to get on swing state ballots, he said: "No, not at all."
Trump went on to praise Kardashian West for lobbying him to grant clemency or pardon several black Americans behind bars for nonviolent offenses.
He specifically named Alice Johnson, a 63-year-old woman who was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1997 for a first-time nonviolent drug-related crime.
A week after the reality TV star pleaded Johnson's case during an Oval Office meeting with President Trump, he commuted Johnson's sentence in June 2018.
Several figures with GOP ties have reportedly been helping West get on the ballot for the November 3 race to take away votes from Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Trump's Vermont convention delegate Chuck Wilton has been linked to the rapper's campaign, and former American Conservative Union Executive Director Gregg Keller is listed as a contact for West's campaign in Arkansas, according to The Hill.
West's presidential bid has been off to a rocky start since his bizarre rant at his July 20 inaugural campaign rally in South Carolina.
Days after his infamous rally, forgery claims plagued the rapper after 600 defective signatures allegedly appeared on hispresidential ballot in New Jersey.
Election law attorney Scott Salmon, a Democrat, said he reviewed the signatures and claimed hundreds of them appear defective in some way.
West filed for the presidential ballot in Arkansas on Monday with a "biblical life coach" as his vice president amid the forgery claims.
He reportedly submitted the 1,000 required signatures for Arkansas just minutes before the 12pm deadline, but missed the Kansas deadline, which required 5,000 signatures.
West has officially missed the deadlines in New York and Maryland but has filed to run in both Vermont and West Virginia, according to TMZ.
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