Rapper Kanye West said he was going to run for president: can he do it
American rap singer Kanye West wrote on Twitter that he was going to run for president. It is unclear whether the musician is joking, but the statement of her husband Kim Kardashian received hundreds of thousands of retweets only in the first hour. Writes about it with the BBC.
This is not the first time West has spoken about the presidency: in October, after the release of his new album, in an interview he promised to nominate himself for the US presidential election in 2024, and for the first time he announced presidential ambitions back in 2015, then Kanye was still associated with US Democratic Party. Since then, his political sympathies have changed - he has repeatedly met with US President Donald Trump, a Republican, spoke in his support and called Trump his brother.
“Now we must realize America's potential by trusting in God, uniting our vision, and building our future. I'm running for President of the United States!" — West posted this tweet on Independence Day, July 4th.
Reactions on social media, where West has nearly 30 million fans, range from sarcastic jokes like “registering too late” and “Taylor Swift is still better than you” to calls to “help this man” and promises of “I’ll be with Biden.”
Among the most notable proponents of this idea are Elon Musk, who recently launched the Dragon Crew spacecraft to the ISS; like West, the entrepreneur prone to provocations and shocking wrote under Kanye’s post: “I fully support you.”
The rapper’s famous wife, Kim Kardashian West, responded to her husband’s tweet by posting a picture with an American flag.
Can he have time?
The US elections are due on November 3, so if the 43-year-old musician seriously intends to compete with the two main candidates - Donald Trump from the Republicans and Joe Biden from the Democrats - then he does not have much time left to go through all the official circles.
On the subject: Fox News: Trump is upset about bad ratings and may withdraw from the election if his performance doesn't improve
According to Bloomberg, Kanye didn’t file any documents so that his name appears on the state ballot (obviously, in his case, it could be California), but in many states the deadline has not yet passed, and West can be nominated as an independent candidate.
But even in this case, he faces many obstacles in order to launch the presidential campaign from scratch in the July-month of the election year.
Theoretically, he can get the support of a third party or register a new one.
In 1992, Texas millionaire Ross Perot entered the race as an independent candidate and received 18,9% of the vote. To participate in the next elections, in 1996, Perot registered a new Reformist Party, but ultimately received less - 8% of the vote.
Trick and self-promotion?
It is possible that for Kanye West it is just a self-PR. Some observers began to wonder if this step is not a cunning plan designed to discourage Joe Biden from the black electorate and thereby help Trump?
Kanye West is a longtime supporter of the current president and has openly expressed admiration for him.
On the subject: US presidential election: Trump and Biden ratings have changed dramatically
In October 2018, Kanye and his wife visited the White House to discuss prison reform with Trump, which ultimately resulted in an emotional meeting and public declarations of mutual admiration. Newspapers then noted the emerging “bromance” between the president and the rapper, calling this unexpected alliance of music and politics no less strange than the reception Richard Nixon gave Elvis Presley in 1970.
Kanye came to the White House wearing a red baseball cap with Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again!” At the same time, Trump was asked whether Kanye could become a future president, to which he said: “It may well be.”
West himself answered the same question: “Only after 2024. Let’s not worry about the future. All we have is today." By calling 2024, the rapper obviously hinted that until the end of the last of Trump's two possible terms, he would not even think about running.
In January 2019, he again tweeted the cryptic “2024,” which many interpreted as confirmation of the idea that he would run for office this year.
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