Before 2022 In October 2022,
CNN reported, based on anonymous sources, that West had a "disturbing history of admiring"
Nazi Germany and
Adolf Hitler.
CNN reported he had read Hitler's manifesto
Mein Kampf (1925).
Rolling Stone reported that West's admiration of the Nazis and Hitler had been an open secret within the music industry for around two decades, According to
Rolling Stone sources, West had repeatedly brought up the Nazis and Hitler as far back as 2003, during the production of
The College Dropout (2004). The sources described West as drawing inspiration from
Nazi propaganda for his marketing tactics and becoming confrontational if he did not feel his views were validated. During a
freestyle event in 2005, West rapped: "I'm tight with my dough like my family Jews, Uh! I said 'Jews', my career is screwed."
The Jerusalem Post wrote that this was West's first remark that "raised eyebrows among Jews". The ADL condemned West's remark as "the age-old canard that
Jews are all-powerful and
control the levers of power in government".
Rolling Stone reported that during a late 2015 business call, West described Hitler as a "marketing genius" who "really understood how to mobilize people in a way that no one ever has."
Van Lathan Jr., who conducted the 2018
TMZ interview in which West said slavery "sounds like a choice", said that West also made comments expressing love for Hitler and Nazis which were edited out before publication.
NBC News reported in November 2022 that West had paid a settlement to an employee who accused him of antisemitism and praising the Nazis. West denied the accusations in the settlement. in response, Instagram locked his account. After being unable to post on Instagram, and previously not tweeting for nearly two years, on October 8, West tweeted that he was "going
death con 3" on Jewish people, prompting media attention. The tweet was widely condemned as
antisemitic, and West's
Twitter account was temporarily locked. Prior to sending out the controversial tweet, he had posted an image of himself with
Mark Zuckerberg on his Twitter, criticizing Zuckerberg for "kick[ing] him off Instagram". On October 11,
Vice reported on unaired segments of an interview of West by Fox News's
Tucker Carlson that aired a few days prior, which contained West making several conspiratorial, racist, and antisemitic statements. Fox News redacted these segments in their original broadcast. That month, an episode of
LeBron James's show,
The Shop: Uninterrupted, featuring West was not released, as West had allegedly made antisemitic comments while recording the episode. In the same interview, West reiterated his claim that
black people are the
Lost Tribes of Israel. The same day, West alleged in a televised interview with
NewsNation's
Chris Cuomo that he was being targeted by a "Jewish Underground Media Mafia", which also led to a confrontation with Cuomo. A few days after these comments, on October 22, the neo-Nazi
Goyim Defense League protested in Los Angeles, hanging a banner that read "Kanye is right about the Jews" above a highway overpass while giving
Nazi salutes. The demonstration was widely condemned by Jewish advocacy groups and politicians, some of whom urged West's sponsor,
Adidas, to cut ties with him. Jeffrey Abrams of the Anti-Defamation League was quoted as expressing that "[t]hese hate groups are now leveraging the anti-Semitic tropes that Kanye West has been peddling on social media [and] on interviews". In response to his antisemitic statements,
Vogue,
Universal Music Group,
CAA,
Balenciaga,
Gap, and
Adidas terminated their collaborations, sponsorships, and relationships with West.
Foot Locker and
TJ Maxx removed West's products from their shelves. With the termination of his business relationships, West lost his billionaire status;
Forbes estimated his reduced worth at $400 million, coming from his "real estate, cash, his music catalog, and a 5% stake in ex-wife Kim Kardashian's shapewear firm,
Skims". On October 26, 2022, West was escorted out of
Skechers headquarters in
Manhattan Beach, California after he arrived unannounced and uninvited; Skechers said it was "not considering and has no intention of working with West". Later in December 2022, while speaking to
X17, West stated that he does not suffer from
bipolar disorder, and that this was a misdiagnosis from a Jewish doctor. He also responded to the claim that he is having a
psychotic episode, stating that he is not having one; he also said he "may be slightly autistic, like
Rain Man".
Donald Trump–Nick Fuentes meeting In late November 2022, West was invited by
Donald Trump to dine with him at
Mar-a-Lago. West arrived at the dinner with three other guests, including
Nick Fuentes, a
white nationalist and
Holocaust denier. Fuentes' presence at the dinner became the subject of much critical media coverage. U.S. president
Joe Biden tweeted that "our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides", interpreted as a response to
Republican Party leaders failing to condemn Trump hosting West and Fuentes. Political correspondent Jonathan Weisman of
The New York Times observed that, for
American Jews, "the debate since the dinner has brought into focus what may be the most discomfiting moment in U.S. history in a half-century or more."
Timcast IRL interview Following the visit, West and Fuentes made an appearance on
Tim Pool's
Timcast IRL podcast on November 28, along with
Milo Yiannopoulos. While on the podcast, West went into detail about his meeting with Trump, claiming that it was pushed from October to November by Trump after he announced
his 2024 bid for presidential election as well as stating that
Alex Jones told West to bring Yiannopoulos with him, who in turn introduced Fuentes as well. West also continued to make antisemitic remarks and compared his situation to that of
Martin Luther King Jr. and
Malcolm X. Pool's reluctance to accept West's views angered West, who repeatedly threatened to leave the set, stating that, "I feel like it's a setup ... I'm going to walk the fuck off the show if I'm having to talk about, 'You can't say Jewish people did it,' when every sensible person knows — that
Jon Stewart knows — what happened to me, and they took it too far." After one of West's statements, Pool made a minor concession to West, stating that he believed that "they" had been unfair to him; this then prompted West to ask Pool to clarify what he meant by "they," speculating (along with Fuentes) that it was a
euphemism for Jews. When Pool clarified that he meant the
corporate press, West, realizing that Pool would not entertain his viewpoints, abruptly left the interview and was followed by Fuentes and Yiannopoulos. Their departure was widely chastised, including by Pool himself, who continued the show afterwards, derogatorily labeling West's exit from his podcast as "
woke."
InfoWars interview On December 1, 2022, West praised Hitler on
InfoWars, saying "every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler", "I love Jewish people but I also love
Nazis", "There's of things that I about Hitler; of things", "I like Hitler", and "I am a Nazi". He also stated that "we got to stop dissing the Nazis all the time", "the Jewish media has made us feel like the Nazis and Hitler have never offered anything of value to the world", and "my accounts have been frozen by the Jewish banks". West also
denied the Holocaust and falsely claimed that it was "factually incorrect" that Hitler killed six million Jews. Following the interview, West posted an image on Twitter of a
swastika entangled within a
Star of David; the symbol is associated with the
Raëlian Movement. His Twitter account was then suspended immediately afterwards, with Twitter owner
Elon Musk stating that he had violated Twitter's rules against
incitement to violence.
Gavin McInnes interview On December 6, 2022, West continued to praise Hitler in an interview with
Gavin McInnes, founder of the
Proud Boys. He said Jewish people should "forgive Hitler today". He compared
abortion to
the Holocaust, saying "the Holocaust is not the only holocaust. So for them to take that and claim when we have abortions right now. That's eugenics. That's genocide. That's a holocaust that we're dealing with right now." He said that the Jewish people "control America" and "have China scared", a reference to the
Zionist Occupation Government conspiracy theory.
Ban from Australia In January 2023, many Australians called for West to be banned from entering Australia over his views, including
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. Dutton told local media:
Education Minister Jason Clare also called for West to be banned from Australia, as did
Victorian Industry Minister
Ben Carroll. Organizations such as the Anti-Defamation Commission and the
Adelaide Holocaust Museum also support banning West from entering the country. In July 2025, it was confirmed that he would be
denied entry into the country.
Informal apology In an Instagram post from March 2023, West wrote, "Watching
Jonah Hill in
21 Jump Street made me like Jewish people again. No one should take anger against one or two individuals and transform that into hatred towards millions of innocent people. No Christian can be labeled antisemite knowing
Jesus is Jew. Thank you Jonah Hill I love you."
The Trouble with KanYe In
The Trouble with KanYe, a 2023
BBC-produced documentary that examines West's controversial views, Alex Klein, a former business partner of West, stated that West was "very angry" and said "I feel like I wanna smack you" and "you're exactly like the other Jews" while working with him. When he asked West if he believed Jews are collaborating with each other to hold him back, he responded by saying "Yes, yes I do." West also said that if he did not have that viewpoint, then he would not "become president."
Vultures announcement In December, after a period of media silence, West announced a collaboration with
Ty Dolla Sign in the form of the album
Vultures 1. The
lead single for the album featured the line "How I'm antisemitic? I just fucked a Jewish bitch", and the initial cover art for the album was called out by fans to suggest a reference to
Burzum, the music project for neo-Nazi artist
Varg Vikernes. On December 15, a video featuring an expletive-ridden rant from West in a meetup went viral, in which he compared himself to Hitler and Jesus Christ, and criticized people for putting their children in "Zionist schools". He also mentioned
Nicki Minaj,
Jay-Z,
Kim Kardashian, North West (his daughter),
Drake, and
Donald Trump, as well as criticizing the companies
Gap and
Adidas. In the same rant, West claimed that "50% of our [Black people] deaths is abortion, and 25% of us [Black people] go to prison" and that "the French own 80% of banks in Africa."
Formal apology (2023) On December 26, 2023, West left a post on Instagram in Hebrew, where he apologized for the antisemitic comments he made. On January 19, 2024, he appeared in an Instagram post with fellow rapper
JPEGMafia wearing a shirt featuring neo-Nazi musician
Varg Vikernes. A month later, he complained of his children being in a "fake school" run by "the system", adding that "At this point everybody knows what 'the system' is code word for."
2025 In February 2025, after calling for the freeing of Combs amid
sex trafficking and racketeering charges, West continued his tirade of antisemitic comments on his
Twitter account. West also referenced the
Elon Musk salute controversy and commended
Chris Brown for overcoming
cancel culture.
Jonathan Greenblatt of the
Anti-Defamation League referred to the comments as "a sad attempt for attention that uses Jews as a scapegoat", adding, "Kanye has a far-reaching platform on which to spread his antisemitism and hate. Words matter. And as we've seen too many times before, hateful rhetoric can prompt real-world consequences." On February 7, West also posted an image purported by others to be of him, taken in 1994; in the photograph, West is seen wearing a t-shirt with a
crossed out swastika and the slogan "Say no to Nazis' New America". Several of West's comments were also deemed as
homophobic,
ableist, and
misogynistic. West's store page, which initially hosted merchandise dedicated to Sean Combs for sale and various songs, was wiped on February 10, 2025, with only a shirt bearing a Nazi
swastika remaining. The shirt appeared on the store front following the advertisement West ran during the Super Bowl the day prior.
Shopify disabled West's store page the following day, stating that "This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms, so we removed them from Shopify". The site went back online on February 13, 2025, only displaying text that reads "Yeezy stores coming soon", followed by a heart. The text also appears in the page title. On February 19, he tweeted, "After further reflection I've come to the realization that I'm not a Nazi". The sincerity of the statement was questioned by Joe Price of
Complex. On March 6, West said that his upcoming album would have "that antisemitic sound". On March 15, he once again identified as a Nazi. On March 16, he tweeted images of a Nazi swastika and the
SS runes of the
Schutzstaffel, claiming them as his "new album cover" and "new
Sunday Service Choir logo", respectively. On March 17, he posted a now deleted video of him with
Nick Fuentes on X while wearing a chain with a swastika pendant. In the video, West called Fuentes "my white supremacist homeboy".
Antisemitic songs and lyrics: "WW3", "Heil Hitler", and Cuck that was sampled by West in the video for the song "Heil Hitler"|The speech by
Adolf Hitler that was sampled by West in the video for the song "
Heil Hitler" On March 15, West uploaded a new song to his X account dubbed "
WW3" which featured a set of lines going "They telling me that I'm a bully, I'm antisemitic fully. They sayin' I'm acting like Hitler, but how am I acting like Hitler? When I'm a fucking nigger." "WW3" was later released on streaming services under a new recording alias, "Ye". On March 30, West joined blogger and Internet personality
DJ Akademiks for an interview. In the interview, West donned a black outfit inspired by the
Ku Klux Klan and continued to make antisemitic remarks. On April 3, West teased a new album titled
WW3. On the
tracklist, there was the previously mentioned title track, as well as two new songs; "
Heil Hitler" and "Hitler Ye and Jesus". In May 2025, he released the song "Heil Hitler". The song alludes to West referring to himself once again as a Nazi, and alluding to that he either adopted or began to be open with his ideology due to his inability to see his children. Lyrics include "With all of the money and fame I still don't get to see my children..." "...So I became a Nazi yea, bitch I'm the villain." "Nigga Heil Hitler, they don't understand the things I say on Twitter, all my niggas Nazis, nigga Heil Hitler." The video features 32 dark-skinned models, some donned with animal skins chanting the lyrics of the song. The video closes with an excerpt of a 1935 speech from Adolf Hitler himself, given at the
Krupp Factory in
Essen. A previous version of the song is quoted as referencing rapper
Drake as a "
faggot", which has been referred to as a
diss: "Niggas be acting like faggots so much, I think they might be Drake."
Twitter apology On May 22, 2025, West tweeted that he was "done with antisemitism" following a
FaceTime call with his children. He asked God to "forgive me for the pain I've caused" and said that he forgave those who caused him pain, though some questioned the sincerity of his apology.
Vibe wrote that it was unclear if this "reflect[ed] genuine growth or an attempt at image repair". On May 31, he re-uploaded "Heil Hitler" as "Hallelujah", which replaces references to Nazism with lyrics relating to Christianity. On June 22, West announced that he would be changing his album's name from
Cukkk to
In a Perfect World. In an interview with
VladTV, Blunts claimed that West had moved on from antisemitic rhetoric, stating that, "he's not on that anymore, he's doing better now."
Meeting with Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto On November 6, 2025, West met with the Israeli-Moroccan
Orthodox rabbi
Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto to apologize and take accountability for his antisemitic statements. He said his antisemitism was influenced by his struggles with
bipolar disorder, which he said would "take [my ideas] to an extreme where I would forget about the protection of the people around me, or myself". Jacob L. Freedman, a Jewish psychiatrist and researcher, wrote for
Aish.com that the meeting was a meaningful first step and encouraged West to "publicly state what steps he plans on taking to ensure that he will not repeat his mistakes... beyond apologizing and seeking to repair the damage done, he should focus on being a positive force by taking steps to publicly fight against antisemitism". On November 13,
HotNewHipHop reported that West had been reaching out to Jewish former collaborators to apologize and was ordering
YouTube copyright strikes on "Heil Hitler".
2026 Wall Street Journal apology On January 26, 2026, West took out a full-page advertisement in the
Wall Street Journal containing an open letter titled "To Those I’ve Hurt." In the letter, West issued a comprehensive apology for his past antisemitic remarks and the use of Nazi imagery, such as the swastika. He attributed his past behavior to "neurological damage" resulting from his 2002 car accident, claiming a 2023 diagnosis revealed an injury to his right frontal lobe that had gone unnoticed for over two decades. West stated that this injury exacerbated his bipolar type-1 disorder and led to "disconnected moments" of poor judgment and "psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior." While stating that his medical condition "does not excuse" his actions, he explicitly disavowed being a Nazi or an antisemite, expressing a commitment to "accountability, treatment, and meaningful change." The letter also addressed the Black community, apologizing for "letting [them] down." ==Notes==