Keller @ Large: What Is The Takeaway From Trump’s Meeting With Kanye?
BOSTON (CBS) — “I love this guy right here, let me give this guy a hug,” said pop star Kanye West as he rounded the desk in the Oval Office and enveloped President Trump in an embrace.
The cameras love it, and this was the takeaway from their televised meeting that Trump lovers will love and Trump haters will hate. But there was more to this meeting than that.
The president’s adversaries could learn something from Kanye’s explanation of what drew him to candidate Trump during the campaign.
That sense of empowerment remains on display at the president’s rallies, an antidote to political alienation on the right.
That’s an emphasis on black economic empowerment that is shared by many Democrats and has plenty of precedent. Singer James Brown endorsed Richard Nixon for re-election in 1972, citing Nixon administration investments in minority businesses as a key reason.
But is there real hope that Kanye can turn his friendship with this president into meaningful policy changes?