Was Kanye West barred from Donald Trump's 2025 inauguration? This is the explanation he gave for skipping the event
Kanye West didn't attend the inauguration of President Donald Trump. The «Runaway» rapper, who has previously gone viral for his hateful and antisemitic remarks, revealed at a Grammys 2025 after-party that he was not allowed to attend President Donald Trump's second inauguration last month because the administration wanted him to make «another» apology, as quoted in a report by E! News.
Budget with ET
Tax calculator
Why was Kanye West asked to apologize again?
According to TMZ, Kanye West, who walked the Grammys red carpet with his wife Bianca Censori, said, «It's this censorship stigma,» in a video that was shown on a large screen during his afterparty with Justin LaBoy. The video was allegedly taken from an upcoming episode of the Respectfully Justin podcast. He was going to attend the inauguration, but they told him that he needed to write another apology, as reported by E! News.
The rapper explained that Donald Trump's administration had requested that he make another statement stating that he was not antisemitic, but Kanye repeatedly mispronounced the word while explaining why he wouldn't, joking that he had mistaken it for «antisympathetic.»
Kanye West's remarks regarding his absence from the January 20 Inauguration come after more than a year he expressed regret to the Jewish community for an antisemitic tirade he delivered while promoting his Vultures album.
In December 2023, Kanye wrote in Hebrew in an Instagram post that has since been removed: «I sincerely apologize to the Jewish community for any
