Kim Kardashian's Standing With Donald Trump Is Crystal Clear
Kim Kardashian was on good terms with Donald Trump during his presidency as the pair worked on prison reform together, but their relationship deteriorated after he left the White House. According to the 2023 book "Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party," the former president had asked the reality TV star to recruit NFL players to publicly back him, but none of the athletes would. In 2021, when Trump was out of office, Kardashian called him and asked for his support on getting clemency for prisoners behind bars, but Trump took issue over being seemingly snubbed by Kardashian. "You voted for Biden and now you come asking me for a favor?" Trump replied before hanging up on "The Kardashians" star, per the book (via Axios).
When excerpts of the book were published, Trump went on the offensive and bashed Kardashian, calling her "the World's most overrated celebrity" on Truth Social. "I did help with prisoner commutation ... and much more so for Kanye West than for Kim," he wrote in November 2023. Kardashian has also admitted that their relationship went south.
The subject of Trump came up while Kardashian appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on April 22. "Listen I don't think he likes me very much, but I'm okay," she told Jimmy Kimmel, while remaining fairly diplomatic. "You know I think he did amazing stuff with prison reform ... so that's what I will focus on," Kardashian added. Kanye West has also claimed that Trump slammed Kardashian in a private conversation.
Why Kim Kardashian aligned herself with Donald Trump
Not only had the friendship between Kanye West and Donald Trump turned sour, but the former "The Apprentice" host had unkind words for Kim Kardashian. In a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, in November 2022, the "Flashing Lights" artist gave inside info about an apparent meeting he had with Trump. "He goes into the story about all that he went through to get [Alice] Johnson out of jail but he didn't do it for Kim but he did for me," West said (via the New York Post). "But then he goes on to say that Kim is a [expletive] and you can tell her I said that," the rapper added.
The release of Alice Marie Johnson that West referenced was a headline-making moment for Kardashian. She met with the then-president to discuss Johnson's potential release in May 2018. "Great meeting with Kim Kardashian today, talked about prison reform and sentencing," Trump posted on Instagram along with a photo of him and Kardashian in the oval office. The following month, Trump commuted Johnson's prison sentence, and she was released after over two decades behind bars. Johnson thanked Trump and called Kardashian an "angel," per the Associated Press.
At the time, the "American Horror Story" actor spoke about the potential fallout for aligning herself with Trump. "I knew there would be tons of backlash ... I had to make a decision that this was bigger than me," Kardashian told CNN in 2018. Kardashian believed she made an impact on the former president.
Kim Kardashian's multiple White House visits
In March 2020, Kim Kardashian returned to the White House to once again meet with Donald Trump. The "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" star was joined by Alice Marie Johnson and several other women who had their sentences commuted by the former president. "[We] will be at the White House bringing light to these women and discuss more change that our justice system desperately needs!" Kardashian tweeted at the time.
A few years later, before Trump had publicly denounced her, Kardashian spoke about the impact she made on the former president. "He went in being so pro-death penalty, and really hard on crime, to opening up his heart and realizing that so many people are inside that don't deserve to be," Kardashian said while speaking about Trump at the Time100 Summit in April 2023.
Kardashian's prison reform work continued well after Trump left office, and she returned to the White House on April 25. It was the first time Kardashian had visited since the visit in March 2020. She took place in a roundtable discussion on prison reform along with Vice President Kamala Harris, and several people who were former prison inmates. In typical Kardashian fashion, she documented the visit on her Instagram page along with a carousel of pic that included a selfie in front of the White House. "We got to hear the lived experiences of how convictions impact your life from the pardon recipients," Kardashian wrote in the caption.