Kanye West spoke to Forbes magazine, in what may seem like a rambling interview, where he spoke about his recent presidential announcement, having COVID-19 and no longer supporting Donald Trump.
West has been supporting Trump since the beginning of his presidency, while donning red MAGA hats and giving pro-Trump speeches, including during his “Sunday Service” events.
But West’s feelings have now changed for reasons that include Trump reportedly hiding in a White House bunker in May while people protested for racial equality outside.
“I am taking the red hat off with this interview,” West declared, while saying Trump’s presidency “looks like one big mess to me.”
The rapper and producer announced on July 4 on Twitter that he would be running for president, a statement that went viral.
West made the same announcement last year, but said he’d be running in 2024. His plans are now to run in this year’s election, and his running mate is Michelle Tidball, a preacher from Wyoming, where West has a ranch.
“I just gracefully suggest y’all bow out, Trump and [Joe] Biden, gracefully bow out,” West told Forbes.
“I’m not saying Trump’s in my way, he may be a part of my way,” he added. “And Joe Biden? Like come on man, please. You know? 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.”
West, who denied that he’s running for president to take away Black votes from Biden, said he’s calling his political party “The Birthday Party.”
His reason: “Because when we win, it’s everybody’s birthday,” he said.
The Chicago native also explained how he’ll use the film, “Black Panther” to pick a White House design team if he’s president.
“A lot of Africans do not like the movie ‘[Black Panther]’ and representation of themselves in Wakanda,” he explained. “But 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.”
West continued, “Like 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.”
Elsewhere in the interview, West said that he registered to vote for the first time in his life on Monday, July 6 in Wyoming, while also admitting that he hasn’t developed a foreign policy plan yet and hasn’t done any research on taxes.
But it seems like he gave a lot of thought about a potential vaccine for COVID-19, an illness he shared that he battled in February.
“Chills, shaking in the bed, taking hot showers, looking at videos telling me what I’m supposed to do to get over it,” West recalled of his experience with the virus.
“It’s so many of our children that are being vaccinated and paralyzed… So when they say the way we’re going to fix COVID is with a vaccine, I’m extremely cautious,” he added. “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.”
