Kenan Thompson Breaks Down What It Was Like To Watch Kanye West’s Pro-Trump Rant On ‘SNL’

Kenan Thompson joined his former SNL companion (and future SNL host) Seth Meyers on Late Night on Monday, where they discussed, among other topics, Kanye West’s pro-Donald Trump sermon. In case you missed it, because you had the good sense to do literally anything else after seeing “Kanye” and “Trump” in the same sentence, the “I Love It” rapper, who was booked as the season 44 premiere musical guest, followed his performance of “Ghost Town” with a rambling speech praising the president. “There’s so many times,” West said, “I talk to, like, a white person about this and they say, ‘How could you like Trump He’s racist.’ Well, uh, if I was concerned about racism I would’ve moved out of America a long time ago.” West’s lecture was met with boos from the audience and confused reactions from the cast, including Thompson.

“We’re all entitled to our opinions,” the recent Emmy nominee told Meyers. “I don’t know if that’s the moment, necessarily, to hold people hostage like that, but hey.” Thompson added that West “voiced his opinion, very loudly. For a long time,” and that he “[proceeded] to ca-ca over people.” (Once a Nickelodeon star who’s probably legally forbidden to say “sh*t,” always a Nickelodeon who’s probably legally forbidden to say “sh*t.”) Thompson wasn’t on the stage at the time of the rant, and he was “for sure” happy he decided to watch it on-screen.

“As soon as he said, ‘Hey, join me up on stage, everybody,’ I was like, ‘Oh, there goes the little cheese and mouse trap; it’s going down.’ I felt so bad for [the cast members on-stage], because it’s hard to stand there and not be able to, y’know, debate somebody who’s going so far against your personal opinion, as well.”

Next up on SNL: Crazy Rich Asians breakout Awkwafina and Travis Scott, who can become everyone’s favorite musical guest by simply not wearing a MAGA hat. (Also, Astroworld >>> Ye.) Watch the clip with Thompson and Meyers above.