The Ill-Timed Concert Donald Trump Once Tried To Hold At The White House

For a time as president, Donald Trump had an unexpected but vocal supporter in Kanye "Ye" West. And evidently it sounds like Trump wanted to capitalize on that friendship by having the controversial rapper perform at the White House, even though he ultimately got talked out of it. It was Alyssa Farah Griffin, who worked for the Trump administration for a short while as the White House Communications Director, who spilled the tea on what she thought was a horrible idea from the jump.

Griffin, who is now one of the co-hosts of "The View," was appearing on "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" at the time when she was asked by a guest about her craziest task while working for Trump. "He wanted to have Kanye West come and do a church service on the White House lawn to unify the country," Griffin recalled (via YouTube). No word on his reaction but it makes us wonder what other Trump ideas got shot down behind the scenes by his team.

As Alyssa Farah Griffin opined on "WWHL," in July 2024, "I can think of few things less unifying than [a Kanye West concert]," confirming that Donald Trump was simply told that it "was not the time or place, sir," when he broached the idea. Notably, this isn't the first time that "The View" co-host has discussed her time at the White House in not the nicest of terms. In particular, Griffin talked about reaching a breaking point when she realized that Trump was "not a fixable individual" (during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020).

While we don't know exactly when the former "Apprentice" host pitched his unity concert/church service idea, it could have been around the same time considering how divided the country was at that point. Whenever it was, we do agree with Griffin that the rapper wasn't a smart option to promote unity and togetherness. West has certainly done and said a number of problematic and shocking things, whether it was stealing the mic from Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs or claiming that slavery was "a choice" on TMZ in 2018.

Kanye West started his so-called Sunday Services in early 2019. They're private, invite-only events featuring a gospel choir that come complete with non-disclosure agreements. Getting the rapper to perform at the White House certainly would have matched the idea of exclusivity that West seemed to be going for with these events. However, it would have been a break in tradition for Trump's time in office. While many presidents before and after have enjoyed live musical performances at the White House, there weren't that many cultural events held during Trump's presidency.

West did go to the White House in 2018 as Trump signed the Music Modernization Act. He spoke to the then-president while proudly wearing a red MAGA hat, in front of reporters, for an intense 10 minutes in the Oval Office. This was just a couple of weeks after the outspoken star went on an unscripted pro-Trump rant on "Saturday Night Live." But by 2022, Trump had distanced himself from West after an infamous Mar-a-Lago dinner where the rapper brought white nationalist Nick Fuentes as a guest and even asked Trump to be his 2024 VP running mate (he declined).