The wild reason why Trump's team says they didn't ask Kanye to perform at the inauguration

It’s no secret that Donald Trump has, erm, struggled to land A-list talent to perform at his inauguration celebrations this weekend. As it stands, the current list of entertainers slated to appear (3 Doors Down! Tony Orlando! The…Piano Guys?) is something more akin to a state fair grandstand than a major national showcase.

But for a brief, confounding moment, there appeared to be one major star who signaled a willingness to share the stage with the president-elect: Kanye West, whose appearance at Trump Tower in December fueled horrified speculation that he—of all people—would be down for some inaugural shenanigans.

But it turns out Yeezy wasn’t even asked to perform. Why not? Because, according to Inauguration Committee chairman Tom Barrack, they were looking to book “typically and traditionally American” acts, instead.

eeeeeeeeeyup.

Asked on CNN Wednesday night if Kanye would perform, Barrack replied: “We haven’t asked him. He’s been great, he considers himself a friend of the president-elect, but it’s not the venue. The venue we have for entertainment is filled out, it’s perfect, it’s going to be typically and traditionally American, and Kanye’s a great guy, we just haven’t asked him to perform.”

Hmmmm, wonder what Barrack—himself a billionaire property investor who spends weekends at a “medieval chateau” in France—could possibly mean by that?