While Kanye West has only tweeted that he’s running for president in Nov. 2020, our current President Donald Trump thinks that his officially entering the race could be “interesting.” But he noted that Yeezy has already missed the deadline in a number of states to appear on the ballot. Trump has previously called 43-year-old rapper a “great friend,” and said that he’s interested to see of Kanye follows through on his political aspirations. “He may. It’s very interesting,” the president told RealClearPolitics in a July 7 interview in the Oval Office, saying that Ye has “a real voice.”
Kanye famously paid Trump a very cordial visit to White House visit in Oct. 2018, just before the midterm elections and sporting Trump’s infamous red “Make American Great Again” campaign hat. While Ye might be after his job, the 74-year-old says that Kanye has waited too long to jump in the race and that any effort would just be testing the waters for a 2024 presidential campaign.
“It’d have to be limited to certain states because in some states the deadline has been missed,” Trump said of Kanye’s interest in winning the 2020 presidency. “If he did it, he would have to view this as a trial run for what’s going to happen in four years.” That’s a long time for Kanye to stay serious about entering politics.
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
On July 4, Yeezy tweeted, “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,” and added the hashtag “2020Vision.” So far he has yet to register as a candidate or do any of the formal steps that those serious about a run would undertake.
While Yeezy got “My full support” from billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, his announcement was met with derision by others. Former NBA player, Stephen Jackson — a close friend of the late George Floyd who has been at the forefront of the Black Lives Matter movement following Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis Police officer, wrote on Instagram that Kanye’s presidential announcement was “clown sh*t.” Actor Jamie Foxx agreed, writing under his comment, “Gottdamn right. Ain’t got time for this bullsh*t.”