Donald Trump has thanked Kanye West after the rapper professed his love for the president and said the pair “are both dragon energy”.

West posted a series of tweets about Trump on Wednesday afternoon, days after praising a rightwing pundit on Twitter.

“You don’t have to agree with trump but the mob can’t make me not love him,” West said.

“We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don’t agree with everything anyone does. That’s what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.”

Trump retweeted West’s message, describing it as “very cool”, in the latest display of affection between the pair.

West later posted a picture of himself wearing a hat featuring Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again”, then posted a closeup picture of a Make America Great Again hat that appeared to have been signed by Trump.

It is not clear what prompted West’s display of affection. In between tweets about Trump he had also written: “I’m nice at ping pong.”

West visited Trump Tower during the presidential transition and was booed during a concert shortly after the 2016 election when he declared that he “would have voted for Donald Trump”.

This week the Hot 97 radio show host Ebro Darden claimed that West told him: “I do love Donald Trump” during a conversation over the weekend. He also praised the rightwing pundit Candace Owens on Saturday.

It is unclear how Trump discovered West’s messages. He does not follow West on Twitter, and Trump did not respond to a later tweet from West clarifying his remarks.

“My wife just called me and she wanted me to make this clear to everyone. I don’t agree with everything Trump does. I don’t agree 100% with anyone but myself,” West said in his subsequent message.

During a briefing on Wednesday afternoon the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, was asked whether West had spoken to Trump since their Trump Tower meeting.

“I don’t know of any conversations that they have had over the last week or so,” Sanders said. “I’ll keep you posted if that changes any time.”

The meeting did not mark West’s first presidential interaction. In 2005, West said on live television during a telethon for victims of Hurricane Katrina: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” Bush later described that moment as the worst of his presidency.

In 2009, the then president, Barack Obama, labeled West “a jackass” after West charged the stage in protest at the MTV Video Music Awards after Taylor Swift won an award.

Asked for a comment, a spokesman for the Trump critic Senator Ben Sasse paraphrased an infamous West remark, saying: “Kanye, I’m really happy for you, Imma let you finish but Cardi B had one of the best rants on taxation as theft of all time.”