Rapper Kanye West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, has announced that he plans to run for president of the United States in 2024 in a series of campaign videos released on Thursday night.
The move comes after a previous failed presidential run in 2020 left him with just 60,000 votes.
In his first campaign video, Ye claimed that he had offered former president Donald Trump as his running mate. Trump announced last week that he would also run for president in 2024 after his failed re-election campaign in 2020.
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Ye even polled his Twitter followers, asking what they thought of Trump’s reaction when the rapper suggested him as vice president.
In the video following the poll, titled “Mar-A-Lago Debrief,” Ye claimed that his offer had “confounded” the former president.
“Trump basically started shouting at me at the table, telling me I was going to lose,” Ye said in the video.
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“I mean, has that worked for anyone in history?” Ye added. “I was like, wait, wait, wait, Trump, you’re talking to Ye.”
Ye also said in the video that he believes Trump should release those detained for their part in the January 6, 2021 riots at the US Capitol.
Ye also tweeted a text exchange that appeared to show that far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulous and white nationalist Nick Fuentes had joined his campaign team. Each of their contacts in Ye’s phone has YE24 added, the tagline the rapper has used in all of his campaign videos.
Ye’s presidential run comes after a series of disastrous scandals surrounding the rapper and outspoken fashion designer.
He sparked outrage during Paris Fashion Week by wearing a t-shirt with the slogan “White Lives Matter,” a phrase that has been used by white supremacists to demean the style. Black Lives Matter movement.
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While defending himself online, Ye made anti-Semitic comments that got him suspended by Twitter and Instagram.
Ye claims that his critics are being paid by a secret group of Jews, a common anti-Semitic ploy. The Guardian reported that, at one point, he said he would “exercise the 3rd con man against the Jews.”
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The outrage then led to Ye’s talent agency firing him, and many fashion companies, including Adidas, Balenciaga and Gap, severing ties with him. The rapper later said he lost “two billion dollars in one day” due to the recession.
The day before announcing his presidential run, Adidas announced that it was opening an investigation into Ye over allegations of harassment against employees who worked on his Yeezy shoe line. Adidas employees told Rolling Stone that Ye used “mind games” to create a “toxic environment” within the company.
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Ye is the second person to announce that he is running for president in 2024, after Trump. It looks like he wants to start this election early after declaring his 2020 campaign too late to appear on the ballot in several states.
In the end, Ye was only listed as a presidential candidate in 12 states in 2020 and held only one rally — in which he broke down discussing abortion and his then-wife Kim. Kardashian.
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