West and the president-elect held a short, awkward press conference, disclosing very few details of their meeting

by Brendan Gauthier (salon.com, December 13, 2016)

Only carnival barker-in-chief Donald Trump could make the transition process so gaudy as to be worthy of a live stream. Unfortunately, C-SPAN discontinued its daily Trump Tower #ElevatorCam feed last month — too early to catch the president-elect’s bizarre joint presser with Kanye West on Tuesday.Asked what the two discussed, Trump quickly shot back, “Life,” and said that he and West are “just friends.” West awkwardly ignored reporters’ questions about whether he planned to run in 2020 — as he announced he would at the 2015 VMAs. Asked if he had any comment on his meeting with the president-elect of the United States, West said, “I just want to take a picture right now.” West garnered criticism last month after ending a California concert with a rambling diatribe about how, had he voted, he would’ve voted for Trump. Shortly thereafter, he was hospitalized. Though he refused to comment, West’s visit to Trump Tower might have something to do with the president-elect’s Inaugural Committee’s inability to book any music act other than Kid Rock and Ted Nugent to perform on January 20. Last week, an anonymous source — identified as a “Hollywood insider” — told The Wrap that Trump’s camp “was in talks with Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, Lee Greenwood and possibly Garth Brooks,” but is holding out for “artists like Justin Timberlake and Bruno Mars” and “calling managers, agents, everyone in town to see who they can get, and it’s been problematic.” “They are willing to pay anything,” the source added. “They told me, ‘We’ll pay their fees.’ Most of these artists’ fees are in the six to seven figures.”