Nick Fuentes claims Kanye West wanted to change his name to swastika
In a recent interview, white nationalist Nick Fuentes has claimed that Kanye West wanted to change his name to a Nazi swastika.
Fuentes is known for right-wing live streams, for participating in the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, and for being a member of Ye’s staff when the rapper was considering a presidential bid. The streamer has consistently made headlines ever since.
As part of another strange rant, Fuentes took aim at former employer West to deny that he was the person behind West’s growing anti-Semitic viewpoint.
“[In December 2022], he told me he wanted to change his name to a swastika,” he told his audience on Rumble. “Not making this up. So for anybody that says I made him a Nazi – that’s not true. He called me up out of the blue one afternoon and he’s like, ‘So what if I changed my name to a swastika?’ And he starts laughing and I start dying. I’m like, that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. He’s like, ‘Right, right.’ He goes, ‘Because then when they say my name, they’ll have to put a swastika on the [chyron] on TV.’”
Fuentes continued: “I’m like, ‘Wouldn’t they just put the letters though?’ He goes, ‘No, no, no! I’m not changing my name to the word.’ He corrected me. He said his name wouldn’t be spelled… It would be the symbol. And he was serious. I was laughing my ass off.
“I was like, ‘Well, why don’t we think about that?’ I’m like, ‘That’s kind of a big decision.’ I’m like, ‘Maybe we should hold off on that one.’ But that is no joke. And that was one of the many ideas that he shelved.”
It’s not the first time Fuentes has tried to use his stream to aim at West, saying earlier in the year that West would “tone up” his Blackness when he was around other Black people.
“He would have to kind of tone up the Blackness when he was with other Black people. I noticed this,” he explained during the stream, “When he was with the Black people, he would kind of tone up how Black he was acting.”
He went on: “When he knew he was safe, when he knew it was a judgement-free zone and he could be himself, that’s when he realized his mom was a professor. And he didn’t come from Chicago, he came from Hyde Park. Big difference. He came from the campus of University of Chicago. He liked art, he liked poetry. You know, he’s like a white autist in many ways. He’s got the soul of a white autist. That’s what fuels his genius; not playing into this gang banger, ‘I fucked your bitch’ whatever.”
