Kanye West tells Tucker Carlson his ‘White Lives Matter’ shirt was ‘funny’

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As controversy continued to swirl over the “White Lives Matter” T-shirt he debuted earlier this week in Paris, Kanye West took aim at his critics in an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson.

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The slogan has been categorized as a “white supremacist phrase” and the rapper faced fierce opposition to the garment, which Black conservative commentator Candace Owens also wore at Paris Fashion Week.

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West told Carlson that he found the idea of him wearing it amusing.

“I thought the shirt was a funny shirt,” he said. “I thought that the idea of me wearing it was funny.”

The Grammy winner went on to tell Carlson he had become a frequent target of left-leaning artists after he publicly embraced former U.S. President Donald Trump by wearing a Make America Great Again hat in public.

“When Trump was running for office and I liked him and every single person in Hollywood, from my ex-wife to my mother in law, to my manager at that time, to, you know, my so-called friends-slash-handlers around me told me if I said that I liked Trump that my career would be over, that my life would be over,” he said. “They said stuff like, ‘People get killed for wearing a hat like that.’ They threatened my life. They basically said that I would be killed for wearing the hat. I had someone call me last night and said anybody wearing a ‘white lives matter’ shirt is going to be green-lit. That means they are going to beat them up if I wear it. I’m like, you know, ‘OK, green light me then.’”

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Elsewhere, West accused his former spouse Kim Kardashian of trying to sway his political opinions. “There was manipulation,” he said. “Me not saying I like Trump was a form of manipulation.”

West was criticized by Gigi Hadid, Jaden Smith and Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson for the T-shirt. Meanwhile, Adidas has put its partnership with the designer “under review.”

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