When Kanye West reasserted on the 4th of July that he was running for president, it raised both the usual eyebrows and eyerolls. But in an interview with Forbes, the embattled icon gives some insight into his decision to run for office.
Since 2016, West has been one of President Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters, and identified as much even a few months ago. However, he says that’s changed now.
“I’m taking the red hat off with this interview,” West said. He continued by explaining why he wore the MAGA hat in the first place: “One of the main reasons I wore the red hat as a protest to the segregation of votes in the Black community. Also, other than the fact that I like Trump hotels and the saxophones in the lobby.”
He also said that he would run as a Republican if Trump wasn’t running and that he isn’t a fan of Democratic hopeful Joe Biden.
“I’m not saying Trump’s in my way, he may be a part of my way. And Joe Biden? Like come on man, please. You know? Obama’s special. Trump’s special. We say Kanye West is special. America needs special people that lead. Bill Clinton? Special. Joe Biden’s not special.”
He also went on to say he’s running under (shit you not) “the Birthday Party,” and is indeed receiving advice from Elon Musk. West also said that he’s chosen to run with Michelle Tidball, a preacher from Wyoming, as his vice president.
West also delved into a number of other issues, speculating that he himself had contracted COVID-19 in February, that he’s never voted before, and, now identifies as an anti-vaxxer.
“It’s so many of our children that are being vaccinated and paralyzed… So when they say the way we’re going to fix Covid is with a vaccine, I’m extremely cautious. That’s the mark of the beast. They want to put chips inside of us, they want to do all kinds of things, to make it where we can’t cross the gates of heaven. I’m sorry when I say they, the humans that have the Devil inside them. And the sad thing is that, the saddest thing is that we all won’t make it to heaven, that there’ll be some of us that do not make it. Next question,” he said.
It also makes sense that a fictional presidential candidate (at press time, West has not filed any paperwork to formally enter the race) views a fictional country as his ideal model for America: The nation of Wakanda from Black Panther.
“But I’m gonna use the framework of Wakanda right now because it’s the best explanation of what our design group is going to feel like in the White House…That is a positive idea: you got Kanye West, one of the most powerful humans—I’m not saying the most because you got a lot of alien level superpowers and it’s only collectively that we can set it free. Let’s get back to Wakanda… like in the movie in Wakanda when the king went to visit that lead scientist to have the shoes wrap around her shoes. Just the amount of innovation that can happen, the amount of innovation in medicine—like big pharma—we are going to work, innovate, together,” he said.
It’s…a lot. Read the full interview here.
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