Image Credit: Nicoleta Ionescu (via bigstock)
It’s something that is often joked about, albeit through gritted teeth, as a response to our modern day obsession with showbiz culture: could we one day see a celebrity US president or UK prime minister?
You could argue that Donald Trump essentially already is our first celebrity politician of note, but it should be said that – love him or hate him – his background is in business, where he has had plenty of success (and some high-profile failures).
But now there’s a new player in the game: Kanye West has thrown his hat into the ring for the 2020 US Presidential race, stating that he is disillusioned with modern politics in the wake of George Floyd’s death and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The rapper couldn’t actually win, could he? Well, perhaps not – he’s priced at 180.00 on the Betfair Exchange behind Joe Biden (1.72), Trump (2.78) and even Mike Pence (90.00) and Hilary Clinton (90.00).
In short: Kanye doesn’t stand a chance of becoming US President.
Of course, stranger things have happened and politics has become increasingly difficult to predict from a betting perspective, so how will ‘Yeezy’ set about replacing Trump in the White House?
Kanye Plans Bizarre Anti-Abortion Ticket
What is Kanye’s USP? Apart from his musical background and being married to the world’s most undeserving billionaire, what is it that West plans to hang his hat on when campaigning?
It’s early days as he looks to build his platform, but according to The Guardian, Kanye’s major ambitions or thought processes look set to be:
- Anti-abortion
- Anti-vaccine (that will go down well at the moment!)
- Build education around ‘the fear and love of God’
- Invest heavily in the space programme, with his chum Elon Musk in charge
- Plans to run under the name ‘Birthday Party’, because “when we win, it will be everybody’s birthday”
And yeah, that’s pretty much it.
Speaking about his desire to run for the White House, West spoke of his own ‘special powers’ as a champion of the people, before being quick to get a dig in to one of his presumptive opponents in the race to replace Trump.
“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 said.
Whatever happens in November, the rapper has confirmed his commitment to run a more comprehensive campaign in 2024. Who he will be battling then is anybody’s guess, although it might not be his old mucker Trump – according to the betting odds anyway, who West has endorsed in the past by wearing his famous red ‘Make America Great Again’ hat.
Also, and these two things are by no means connected, Kanye also released his tenth studio album this week, ironically called ‘God’s Country’.
Who Will Vote for Kanye West?
“It’s so many of our children that are being vaccinated and paralysed….so when they say the way we’re going to fix COVID-19 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.”
It’s the kind of irresponsible talk that will have the science community up in arms, but there is a captive market for this kind of psychobabble – Trump won, after all – and you could see West building a small but passionate fanbase as he begins his campaign.
And here’s the thing: if Kanye’s momentum does gather speed, and Trump continues to lose support in the polls, could there be a scenario where the current President steps aside and lets West run as the Republican candidate?
That seems unlikely too. Kanye hasn’t officially said he wants to represent the Republicans, and the notion of Donald Trump stepping aside for ANYONE is farcical give the man’s ego.
The 43-year-old has severed all ties and support for Trump following a controversial interview with Forbes, and so the battle lines have been drawn ahead of what will surely be the most bizarre White House race in history.
Joe Biden could probably do nothing but let these two talk and he’d win by a landslide….
