Donald Trump took to Twitter on Saturday morning to thank his one of his biggest supporters: “Thank you to Kanye West for your nice words. Criminal Justice Reform is now law—passed in a very bipartisan way!”
Trump's appreciation follows Kanye's New Year's Day tweetstorm, where Ye declared “Trump all day,” and went on to write, “Just so in 2019 you know where I stand.”
The law Trump’s referencing is something both West and Kim Kardashian have been passionate about: the First Step Act, a bipartisan legislation Trump signed into law last month. The legislation “reduces mandatory minimum sentences in certain instances and expands on ‘good time credits’ for well-behaved prisoners looking for shorter sentences,” according to The Hill.
Kim has spoken about how pleased she is with the criminal justice reform efforts. She thanked Donald Trump after Tennessee man Matthew Charles—who was set to serve a decade behind bars for dealing drugs—was freed near the beginning of this year. He was originally released from jail in 2016 thanks to his clean record behind bars and revisions to a drug law that harshly penalized crack, but a court ordered him back in prison that same year because the change did not apply to those deemed "career criminals."
Kim also met with Trump last year to push for a commuted sentence for Alice Marie Johnson, who was serving life for a nonviolent drug offense and money laundering charges. After meeting with Kim, Trump granted Johnson clemency.
