Kim Kardashian Opens Up About Arguing With Kanye West Over MAGA Hat, Shares What She Learned From It

In a new interview with Bari Weiss, who resigned from the New York Times’ opinion department amid controversy last year, Kim Kardashian looks back on the arguments she had with Kanye West during the height of what some refer to as the red hat era.

Asked in the new interview about Ye wearing a Trumpism-promoting MAGA hat on SNL in 2018, Kardashian shared what she learned from the experience. Kardashian said she was “very nervous” at the time and “didn’t want” Ye to wear the hat, his adoption of which was the subject of widespread pushback among fans and critics alike.

“I remember other people were around and it became a thing where he wasn’t going to go on because he wanted to be who he is,” Kardashian said in the interview, which was shared to Weiss’ Substack and via her Honestly podcast on Thursday. “I’m very neutral, but that night I was very forceful with him, and argued with him like, ‘You have to take that hat off.’ And now looking back, I think, why should he take that off if that’s what he believes in? Why can’t he wear that on TV? Half of the country voted for him, so clearly other people like him.”

According to the SKIMS co-founder, she “learned a lot” from those arguments. “No matter what, it taught me to be a little bit more empathetic for people that just want to do what they want to do: freedom of speech!” she said. “And if you want to wear the hat, wear the hat. I respect the fact that he knew exactly what he believed in and always stood by that. To me, that’s a good quality to have, no matter who is against you and no matter what the circumstances are. I think that it’s just admirable and it’s just a really cool quality. Even if it’s not what I agree with, or even if I would have done it differently, I think it’s commendable.”

Back in November, Ye himself mentioned Kim’s efforts at stopping him from wearing the MAGA hat, saying she “just wanted to protect me and our family” and stating that his decision to wear it anyway had made him and his family “a target.”

Elsewhere, Kim was asked to name her favorite Ye album (“I really like Yeezus. I also love My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”), favorite Taylor Swift track (“I really like a lot of her songs. They’re all super cute and catchy. I’d have to look in my phone to get a name”), favorite SNL cast member (which did not result in a direct mention of Pete Davidson), and more. She also spoke at length about recently passing California’s First-Year Law Students’ Examination, as well as the 2020 pardoning of Alice Marie Johnson under the Trump administration.

Kim and Ye’s daughter North West gets a mention here too, specifically in connection with a recent TikTok livestream. As previously reported, North recently ended up in headlines after going live on TikTok, with Kim being seen in since-shared clips reminding her daughter that livestreams aren’t allowed. At one point, as shouted out by Kim herself this week, North’s cousin (and Kim’s nephew/“insightful king”) Mason Disick reached out to express concerns over the incident.

Speaking with Weiss about it all, Kardashian reiterated that North felt “really bad” about what happened, noting that it was indeed against the rules of the family home. Still, per Kim, it’s inevitable that North will “do all of the above” because she is very much Ye’s child. “I mean, North West is Kanye West’s daughter,” she said. “Forget that, she’s his twin.”

Click here for more of Kardashian’s talk with Weiss, which also sees Kardashian responding to a question about her political identity by claiming that she’s a “mix of both” Republican and Democrat. “I believe in the rights that the Democrats want, but I believe in the taxes that the Republicans want. I’m a mix of both,” she said.

Earlier this month, Kardashian’s SKIMS brand launched its second drop in collaboration with Fendi. The bulk of recent headline-ification, however, has focused on the aforementioned Davidson. At one point in mid-November, multiple sources-citing reports were running with the word “officially” when alleging various items about the two. However, neither Kardashian nor Davidson have publicly clarified any of this, and why should they?