Kanye West who announced on July 4, 2020 that he is challenging Donald Trump for the US presidency in 2020. PHOTO | AFP
Kanye West announces 2020 presidential run
Sunday July 5 2020
Washington,
Kanye
West, the entertainment mogul who urges listeners in one song to "reach
for the stars, so if you fall, you land on a cloud," announced Saturday
he is challenging Donald Trump for the US presidency in 2020.
"We
must now realise the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our
vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United
States! #2020VISION," the born-again billionaire rapper tweeted as
Americans marked Independence Day.
He offered no further details on his campaign, four months before the November election.
West long ago broke ranks with most of the left-leaning entertainment industry to loudly voice his support for Trump.
WHITE HOUSE MEETING
In 2018, they met in the Oval Office – a
surreal tete-a-tete that included a hug from the rapper as well as an
on-camera rant featuring an expletive not often repeated for the White
House press corps.
That year,
West also delivered a lengthy soliloquy to a president who many deem
racist, telling him he loved him – to the dismay of many Democrats and
fellow artists.
But in 2019,
during an interview with Zane Lowe of Apple Music's Beats 1 show, he
said his support for Trump had been a way to razz Democrats – and
announced his own presidential ambitions.
"There
will be a time when I will be the president of the US, and I will
remember... any founder that didn't have the capacity to understand
culturally what we were doing."
It was unclear to whom the artist was referring.
TURN TO CHRISTIANITY
The
announcement came days after West, who has taken a very public turn
towards Christianity in recent years, released a new song, "Wash Us In
the Blood," along with an accompanying video including imagery from
recent anti-racism protests.
Since
2018, his wife, reality star Kim Kardashian, has formed her own
contacts with the White House as she champions criminal justice reform:
she has successfully lobbied Trump to pardon a sexagenarian woman for a
non-violent drug offense.
For
weeks now Trump, criticised for his response both to the coronavirus
pandemic and to anti-racism protests, has been lagging in the polls
behind his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
There was no immediate response to West's announcement from either candidate Saturday.
