Kim Kardashian West explains why she’s standing by her man, Kanye

In a revealing interview with CNN’s Van Jones, Kim Kardashian West offered a much-needed window into husband Kanye West’s thinking.

Kardashian West explained in the latest episode of “Be Woke. Vote Presents the Messy Truth With Van Jones,” that in standing by the rapper, she’s simply returning the support he showed her early on in their relationship: “He’s put himself up against the world for me when everyone told him, ‘You cannot date a girl with a sex tape. You cannot date a reality-show girl. This is gonna ruin your career.’ Everyone told him that. And he was like, ‘You’re not going to tell me what to do.’ ”

She continued “He’s always been there to hold my hand and lift me up higher and give me the confidence and I’ll always do the same for him.”

Jones admitted he couldn’t wait to ask Kardashian West what she thought of her husband’s pro-Trump rant on “Saturday Night Live” and in the Oval Office.

“I always say this: It takes him about four years to write a song – to explain, to communicate what he wants to say,” she prefaced. “So when he tweets something in two minutes, what’s going on in his mind and what he thinks and what he’s trying to say … He might not be the best communicator. But he has the best heart and I know what he means.”

The reality star spoke about her husband’s attachment to his Make America Great Again hat, saying she thinks it means something different to the famed rapper than it does to other people. She also said he did not get his point across clearly when he likened the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, to a “trap door” and suggested it be reconsidered.

As for his “SNL” rant from the curtain call after the season opener, she recalled seeing “some report that said Kim stood in the back and just watched … I’m like, ‘Well, did you want me to get up on stage and sing? What do you want me to do?’ I listened to him and afterward, I might let him know that I can help him communicate that a little bit better.”

And how does West respond to her constructive criticism?

‘He’s always like, ‘Oh yeah, but I already tweeted it.’ I’m like, ‘Well, what you tweeted isn’t what you just said to me.’ Sometimes over the phone, people don’t really have the time to hear him out and see what he has to say in the snippets. I’ve seen how the media has been really crazy. But the thing is, he is so strong. He knows what he means and the people around him know what he means. The people around him let him know that what he said might not be what he means and try to help him work on it. But I know his heart. So yes, we’re working on expressing that.”

She added, “He will always do what he believes, whether it’s the popular thing or not. And he has said so many times – even on ‘SNL’ – though I don’t know if it made it on air – ‘I do not agree with all the [Trump administration’s] policies. I don’t even know all the policies. I’m not political. I’m just saying this is what [the MAGA hat] represents to me. And I will wear it because that’s what I feel.’ ”

The bottom line, according to Kardashian West: “He wants to fight for free thought.”

Via Twitter Tuesday, Kanye West said he’s distancing himself from politics, and his bromance with Trump may be over.

The controversial rapper, who has become one of Trump’s highest-profile celebrity supporters, tweeted he has become a political pawn.

“My eyes are now wide open and now realize I’ve been used to spread messages I don’t believe in,” West, 41, tweeted.

He continued: “I am distancing myself from politics and completely focusing on being creative !!!”

The rapper’s thoughts (as well as those of his wife and her family) were also at the center of a new Business Insider interview with music-video director Joseph Kahn, who said he’d never work with West.

“I find the Kanye/Kardashian culture so — to me, it’s hand in hand with the Trump world,” Kahn told the website. “There’s a lack of thought that’s masquerading as thought. It’s using the power of brand as the power of thought. And if anything, I’m so immersed in the power of brands, I try to put thought in the brands and I don’t see thought going on there. I just see crazy people flinging around and just trying to make money and call it thought.”

In the interest of full disclosure, Kahn is also the guy who directed the video for Sisqo’s decidedly unintellectual “Thong Song.” He worked on Brown’s “Crawl” in 2009, the same year the singer pleaded guilty to felony assault for beating then-girlfriend Rihanna. But the Korean-American director insists he makes an effort to be conscientious about the work he does and the artist he works with.

“I have to be very careful what to use my skill set for,” he told the website. “Everybody loves to make money, obviously, everybody loves to be comfortable, but you also have to be careful what you put out there. Look, I make silly music videos for a living, but I just want to make sure that I’m being responsible with the power that I’ve been given.”

Jayme Deerwester, USA TODAY

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