Former US president Donald Trump has praised disgraced rapper Kanye West’s recent antisemitic comments, while himself embroiled in controversy over his own allegedly antisemitic remarks.

In a discussion with talk show host Larry O’Connor on Tuesday, Trump had high praise for West, who now wishes to be known as “Ye”, even after the hip-hop star recently double downed on antisemitic tropes.

During the interview, Trump said: “He [Ye] was really nice to me. Beyond anybody, he was. He was great to me.

“He was great, really, to MAGA, to the MAGA movement, which was very impressive, I’ve always gotten along with him,

“He was really high on a guy named Donald Trump.”

The twice-impeached ex-commander-in-chief has recently been embroiled in controversy himself after he told American Jews to “get their act together” in a social media post on Sunday and accused them of being ungrateful for what he described as his strong support of Israel. 

Trump’s praise comes two weeks after Ye said Jared Kushner, Trump’s Jewish son-in-law, only brokered the 2020 Abraham Accords “to make money”, and a post to social media saying he was going “Death con 3” on Jewish people.

Trump’s comments also follow an interview between Ye and former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo on the little-known NewsNation on Monday.

In that interview, done from the backseat of a dimly lit car, the billionaire artist and shoe mogul claimed that his “life was threatened by my Jewish managers, by my Jewish lawyer, by my Jewish accountant.”

Kanye West and Chris Cuomo

Kanye West on Chris Cuomo’s News Nation, October 17

Ye also mentioned that he doesn’t believe in the term “antisemitism”, and that “black people are also Jew[ish], I classify as a Jew, also, so I can’t actually be an antisemite.

“I don’t like the term antisemitic, it’s been used for people specifically in my industry to get away with murder, sometimes literally.”

He went further to say, “The Jewish underground media mafia already started attacking me,” 

Ye insisted, “We’re not going to be owned by the Jewish media anymore” and warned “these people” could end the career of anyone who isn’t aligned with “the agenda”

The Anti-Defamation League has condemned both West and Trump for promoting centuries-old tropes about Jewish power, wealth and disloyalty.