Donald Trump Once Asked Staff for Kanye West to 'Do a Church Service on the White House Lawn,' Alyssa Farah Griffin Reveals
Kanye West leading a religious rite in Washington, D.C., would have been something, to say the least.
Former president Donald Trump's ex-employee Alyssa Farah Griffin recently revealed the "wildest thing" her old boss asked her to do while working for him, admitting it involved the time he asked staffers to arrange for West to host a church service at the White House when he was U.S. commander-in-chief.
The View panelist made the shocking revelation during a guest appearance on the Tuesday, July 23, episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, where she opened up about her time working as Trump's White House director of strategic communications and assistant to the president in 2020.
"One day he wanted to have Kanye West come and do a church service on the White House lawn to unify the country, and I could think of few things less unifying than that. But we were like, 'Not the time or place, sir,'" Griffin — who has been vocal about no longer supporting the Republican politician — admitted to Andy Cohen.
Trump's request came roughly one year after the controversial rapper first started hosting Sunday Services — an event he held weekly in which he would sing religious songs with a gospel choir for his friends and family — in 2019.
West and Trump had a friendly relationship during The Apprentice star's presidency from 2016-2020, however, tensions between the two began to rise after the "Heartless" rapper attempted to run against the ex-POTUS in the 2020 election.
- 'Bad Sequel of Celebrity Apprentice': Donald Trump Slammed After Nominating Dr. Mehmet Oz to Run Medicare and Medicaid Services
- Donald Trump Is 'Giving the Finger to the American People' With His Controversial Cabinet Choices, Bob Woodward Claims
- Jimmy Kimmel Slams Sylvester Stallone for Calling Donald Trump the 'Second George Washington': 'I Guess Those Punches Rocky Took to the Head Were Real'
Want OK! each day? Sign up here!
By 2022, their bond appeared to completely fizzle, as Trump took to Truth Social to call West "a seriously troubled man, who just happens to be Black" after the Yeezy founder brought supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes to have dinner with the former president at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
"He shows up with 3 people, two of which I didn’t know, the other a political person who I haven’t seen in years," Trump wrote. "I told him don’t run for office, a total waste of time, can’t win. Fake News went CRAZY!"
Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for!
At the time, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell slammed Trump for meeting with the political extremists, stating: "There is no room in the Republican Party for antisemitism or white supremacy. And anyone meeting with people advocating that point of view, in my judgment, are highly unlikely to ever be elected president of the United States."
In December 2023, West went on lengthy, antisemitic rant in Las Vegas, calling Trump a "Zionist" while insisting he's "been trying" to prove this to fans.