Culture

Kanye West Has Outed Himself As A Trump Fan, Confirms Plans For A 2020 Presidential Run

He spent more than 40 minutes during his latest concert talking about politics.

by Tom Clift  19 November 2016

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

Kanye 2020 might actually be a thing, if the outspoken hip-hop artist is to be believed. Speaking at a concert in California yesterday, Kanye West doubled down on his pledge to run for President of the United States in 2020. The rapper also revealed to the crowd that he would have voted for Donald Trump in the election just passed – had he bothered voting at all.

Kanye West Announces He’s Running For President In 2020; Even He Seems Surprised By The News

“I told y’all I didn’t vote, right?” West told the crowd in San Jose. “But if I were to vote, I would have voted for Trump.” The admission drew widespread boos from the audience.

“That don’t mean that I don’t think that Black Lives Matter, that don’t mean that I don’t believe in women’s rights, that don’t mean that I don’t believe in gay marriage,” the rapper clarified.

Over the course of a political rant that reportedly lasted upwards of 40 minutes, West touched on racism, partisan politics and Trump’s unconventional road to the White House, often interrupting himself mid-song to the obvious frustration of the crowd.

“Specifically to black people, stop focusing on racism,” he said at one point. “This world is racist, ok? Let’s stop being distracted to focus on that as much. It’s just a fucking fact. We are in a racist country. Period.”

West said he was glad that Trump had caused racists across the country to reveal themselves. “Sometimes things that you might think are bad need to happen, in order for change to fucking happen.”

West also praised Trump’s “nonpolitical methods [of] speaking,” remarking that “that method of communication has proven that it can beat a politically correct way of communication.”

“I actually think his approach was absolutely genius because it fucking worked,” he added.

On the subject of his own political aspirations, West said that by 2020 he felt he would have the experience to run for office, and listed “education” and “housing” as two issues he felt were important. He also called for an end to partisan politics, saying that “our current president has to take the best of all candidates’ principles, and combine them right now.”

“I got some ideas about the way we should connect our ideas,” he continued. “And we should use opposite parties…everyone that ran that had an idea that people agreed with, should be the collective ideas that are used to run the country.”

Look, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that the idea of President West isn’t ridiculous. But then again, this time last month I felt the exact same way about President Trump. Just…don’t rule it out. That’s all I’m saying.