White supremacist Nick Fuentes claimed Kanye West pitched an offensive name change during their political alliance. Fuentes recalled Ye supposedly wanting to change his name to the s#######, the symbol now associated with Nazis, during an August 21 livestream on Rumble.
“He told me he wanted to change his name to a s#######,” Fuentes said. “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 s#######?’ 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 s####### on the [chyron] on TV.’”
Fuentes continued, “I’m like, ‘Wouldn’t they just put the letters though?’ He goes, ‘No, no, no.’ He goes, ‘No, I’m not changing my name to the word.’ He corrected me. He said his name wouldn’t be spelled ‘S.W.A.’ He said no, his name would be spelled s#######. 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.”
According to Fuentes, West envisioned the name change as an “ironic reappropriation” of the symbol. Fuentes said the conversation occurred in December 2022.
“I don’t know if he’d appreciate me telling that story,” he admitted.
West aligned with Fuentes, a Holocaust denier, amid the controversial rapper’s onslaught of antisemitism in 2022. Ye brought Fuentes to an infamous dinner with former President Donald Trump in November 2022.
Fuentes was part of West’s second presidential campaign, which quietly ended in 2023. Ye cut ties with Fuentes in favor of rehiring Milo Yiannopoulos, another far-right figure, before the campaign’s demise.
