On Saturday night, Van Jones kicked off his new show on CNN with an in-depth conversation with hip-hop star Jay-Z. The two chatted at length about the Trump presidency, sounding off on the various comments Trump has made during his rise to prominence. Jay-Z even went to far as to call Trump a "superbug" of racism that has seemingly permeated every corner of the country.
Case in point was Trump's recent comments calling various nations 'sh*thole countries,' which Jay-Z described as "really hurtful."
"Everyone feels anger, but after the anger it's really hurtful because he's looking down on a whole population of people and he's so misinformed because these places have beautiful people," he told Jones.
"There was a moment when Donald Sterling had been exposed as this racist on a private phone conversation that he was having and they took his team from him," Jay-Z said of the former L.A. Clippers owner. "And it's like, OK, that's one way to do it. But another way would have been, let him have his team and then let's talk about it together. ... Maybe some penalties. Because once you do that, all the other closet racists just run back in the hole. You haven't fixed anything. What you've done was spray perfume on a trash can."
He continued the analogy, saying, "You don't take the trash out. You keep spraying whatever over it to make it acceptable and then, you know, as those things grow, then you create a superbug."
"And then now we have Donald Trump, the superbug," he joked before adding, "Donald Trump is a human being, too. Somewhere along his lineage something happened to him ... and he's in pain and he's expressing it in this sort of way."
So it came as no surprise when Trump took to Twitter Sunday morning to respond to Jay-Z, saying in a tweet: "Somebody please inform Jay-Z that because of my policies, Black Unemployment has just been reported to be at the LOWEST RATE EVER RECORDED!"
He then added some examples of how his presidency has aided the economy:
But here's the problem: Jay-Z talked about Trump's policies on Jones' show, specifically his assertions about the black unemployment rate being at a record low.
When asked by Jones if he felt like it was ok for Trump "to say terrible things but put money in our pockets," Jay-Z said no. "Because it's not about money at the end of the day. Money doesn't equate to happiness. It doesn't," he asserted. "That's missing the whole point."
He added, "You treat people like human beings. That's the main point. It goes back to the whole thing -- 'Treat me really bad and pay me well.' It's not going to lead to happiness, it's going to lead to, again, the same thing. Everyone's going to be sick."
So it would seem like Trump didn't watch the interview at all.
Jones responded to Trump's tweets with a clip from the show, and informed the president that Jay-Z had, in fact, addressed Trump's comments about black unemployment rate with a "powerful" response:
I guess that's what happens when you get all of your news from one outlet:
Also, many were quick to point out that Trump can't exactly take all the credit for the economy:
Not to mention that focusing on the black unemployment rate is missing the bigger picture:
So, sorry Eminem. It looks like Trump has decided to spar with yet another black man:
And for the record, our money is on Jay-Z:
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social