WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is having lunch Thursday with rapper Kanye West, who he calls a longtime friend.
Trump told “Fox and Friends” Thursday: “He’s a different kind of guy and that’s OK with me.”
The White House has said they will talk about manufacturing, prison reform, preventing gang violence and reducing violence in Chicago, where West grew up. Also attending is former NFL great Jim Brown, a civil rights leader who’s met with Trump previously.
So far, Ye brought up issues on the streets of Chicago between citizens and police officers around stop-and-frisk policing.
President Donald Trump says he’s “open-minded” about stop-and-frisk policing.
He made the comment as he met with rapper.
Trump earlier this week called on Chicago to adopt the strategy, in which large numbers of people are temporarily detained, questioned and sometimes searched for drugs and weapons.
Trump had said that “stop-and-frisk works.”
But West, who’s from Chicago, tells Trump that this strategy is detrimental. Here’s what West said: “We feel stop-and-frisk does not help relationships in the city.”
Trump says he’d been willing to “look at it,” and says, “They have to do something.”
Stop-and-frisk was used extensively in New York City until it was deemed unconstitutional because of its impact on minority residents. Chicago reached an agreement with the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois in 2015 to curb the practice.
Trump recently tweeted praise for West, who closed a “Saturday Night Live” show wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat and delivering an unscripted pro-Trump message after the credits rolled.
West is married to reality television star Kim Kardashian West, who pushed Trump to grant a pardon for a drug offender this year.