Kanye West is throwing his MAGA hat into the political arena, announcing on Twitter that he is running for president of the United States… in 2020.
“We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States ! #2020VISION,” he tweeted on July 4, the most patriotic day of the year.
This isn’t the first time Yeezus has said he’s running for the commander in chief. In 2015, while accepting the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at MTV’s Video Music Awards, he told a stunned audience, “As you probably could have guessed by this moment, in 2020 I have decided to run for president.”
We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States ??! #2020VISION
— ye (@kanyewest) July 5, 2020
West’s declaration at that awards show wasn’t taken very seriously at the time for many reasons, including the fact he admitted to smoking “a little something” to knock “the edge off” right before he took the stage. But as recently as November 2019, he told guests at Fast Company’s Innovation Festival that he was running for president in 2024, which got a good chuckle from those attending.
“What y’all laughing at?” he responded. “We would create so many jobs! I’m not going to run, I’m going to walk. When you see headlines saying Kanye’s crazy — one in three African Americans are in jail and all the celebrities are in jail also because they can’t say nothing, they got no opinion, they’re so scared!”
Through the years, West has become increasingly vocal about politics and his support for President Trump. In October 2018, West had lunch with Trump in the White House at which time they, according to the New York Times, discussed job opportunities for former convicts and the rapper’s hope of increasing Chicago-area manufacturing jobs.
His embrace of the president was nothing but good news for Trump, whose support among black men doubled from 11% to 22% in the week following their meeting.
It is unclear at this time what political party West will be running under. Representatives for West and the White House have not responded to request for comment.