President Trump, Kanye West Discuss Stop-and-Frisk Policing During White House Lunch

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.

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top