Kanye West
and Kim Kardashian West are among the world's wealthiest celebrities
US rapper
Kanye West has said he is running for president, potentially pitting him
against a man he says he admires, Donald Trump.
"We
must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision
and building our future," he tweeted. "I am running for president of
the United States!"
His wife
Kim Kardashian West and entrepreneur Elon Musk endorsed him.
But it's
unclear whether West is really running.
He does not
appear to have registered his name with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for
November's election. The closest name the FEC database shows is a candidate
called "Kanye Deez Nutz West", who filed their papers with the Green
Party in 2015 under the address "1977 Golddigger Avenue, Suite Yeezus"
and appears to have raised no money.
Skip
Twitter post by @kanyewest
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
Report
End of
Twitter post by @kanyewest
It is also
not the first time West has claimed that he is running for the White House.
At the 2015
MTV Video Music Awards, he said he had decided to run for president in 2020.
But last
November he pushed the date back, saying he would actually run in the 2024
contest.
"What
are you laughing at?" he asked the crowd at Fast Company's Innovation
Festival.
"We
would have created so many jobs that I'm not gonna run, I'm gonna walk," he
said, adding he was considering changing his name for the run to "Christian
Genius Billionaire Kanye West".
In his
tweet on Saturday, US Independence Day, West, 43, did not say if his supposed run
would be affiliated with a particular political party.
In any
case, contesting the nomination of one major parties would be impossible at
this stage, with the election only four months away.
In order to
appear on the ballot as an independent candidate, West would have to gather a
certain amount of signatures and register in states by a particular deadline. The
deadline has already passed in some major states but the music star would still
technically have time to file in many others.
In 2018,
West made a bizarre appearance at the White House with President Trump during
which he wore a Make America Great Again hat and made an expletive-filled rant
that Mr Trump described as "quite something".
"I
love this guy right here," West said, walking behind the desk to hug the
seated president, who said: "That's really nice."
The rapper
also pushed back on the idea that African-Americans are overwhelmingly
Democratic Party voters, saying: "People expect that if you're black, you
have to be Democrat."
Kim
Kardashian West retweeted her husband's statement about the presidential run
with an American flag.
She has in
recent years become a significant voice in the US movement for criminal justice
reform and has successfully lobbied President Trump to release several
prisoners.
