Elon Musk has a “real friend” in Kanye West.
Standing atop a desk while touring Detroit’s College for Creative Studies on Tuesday, West gave an impassioned defense of the Tesla chief executive — in what looked like a 2018 version of Tom Cruise manically proclaiming his love for Katie Holmes on “Oprah” — at a time when both men are fighting off increasingly vocal critics.
“Elon Musk — I don’t give a f— who’s over his house — leave that man the f— alone,” West pleaded in a brief clip posted on Twitter. “Leave that man the f— alone.”
Beware of profanity in the clip:
kanye really came to our little art school and told us to leave elon musk alone pic.twitter.com/Y9ujjprUNS
— josh (@j___k_h) October 2, 2018
West also appeared to refer to rapper Azalea Banks, who said she saw Musk tweet “while on acid” when she was hanging out at his house in August.
But that hasn’t been the only headline-grabbing moment from Musk — or from West — in recent months. The SEC hit Musk with a fraud lawsuit last week, stemming from a tweet he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private in August — rocketing Tesla’s stock price higher. Musk ultimately walked back talks of taking Tesla private. And the SEC ended up calling its lawsuit off, after Musk agreed to pay a $20 million fine and step down as Tesla’s chairman this past weekend.
West, meanwhile, has upset many of his fans — including Lana Del Rey — for sporting a “Make America Great Again” hat in support of President Trump. And after wearing his red MAGA hat on “Saturday Night Live,” West ruffled more feathers on Sunday when he called for the repeal the 13th amendment.
“This represents good and America becoming whole again. We will no longer outsource to other countries,” he tweeted. “We build factories here in America and create jobs. We will provide jobs for all who are free from prisons as we abolish the 13th amendment. Message sent with love.”
No word yet on if there will be a Yeezy-Tesla collaboration.