American rapper Kanye West announced his intention to run for president in 2020 in a tweet posted on July 4, 2020, four months before the United States presidential election on Nov. 3, 2020.
Running under 'Birthday Party'
In an interview with Forbes, West said he was running under a banner he called 'The Birthday Party', and that he was no longer supporting the incumbent president Donald Trump, who is running under the Republican Party.
When asked about the choice of name, he said:
"Because when we win, it’s everybody’s birthday."
However, he also added that he would run as a Republican candidate if Trump "wasn't there", but will run as an independent candidate if Trump remains the incumbent.
The rapper added that he was receiving guidance from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who was one of the first few public figures to openly show his support for West on Twitter.
While he does not have any campaigning tools at the moment, his other advisor besides Musk is his wife, Kim Kardashian-West.
He has picked a rather unknown running mate as his vice presidential candidate — Michelle Tidball, an obscure preacher from Wyoming.
West denied during the phone interview with Forbes that his intent to run was a publicity stunt for his upcoming album, saying that he'd "give his album away for free".
Wants to model US govt on Wakanda because technology
West said that he would model the management of the White House on Wakanda, a fictional nation from Marvel’s Black Panther.
"...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," the rapper said.
"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."
Would not approach issues with "policy"
When asked about his approach to developing policies, West said that he would not approach issues with 'policy'.
"I don’t know if I would use the word ‘policy’ for the way I would approach things. I don’t have a policy when I went to Nike and designed Yeezy and went to Louis and designed a Louis Vuitton at the same time. It wasn’t a policy, it was a design. We need to innovate the design to be able to free the mind at this time."
Paris Hilton posts mocking response on Instagram
After West announced his intention to run for president, American celebrity and socialite Paris Hilton also posted on Instagram, hinting that she wanted to run as well.
Hilton followed up with another post, with the slogan "Make America Hot Again", a parody of Trump's 2016 slogan "Make America Great Again".
Top image via SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images, Marvel Studios/YouTube