Kanye West's 2020 Presidential Campaign

Overview

Kanye West's 2020 Presidential Campaign refers to musician Kanye West's July 2020 tweeting that he will be running for president. The tweet was met with confusion and conspiracies with many Twitter users claiming that the tweet is simply promoting an upcoming album and some pointing out that he hasn't officially registered for candidacy.

However, West later announced his platform, which was also heavily mocked for numerous reasons, including he would be running under "The Birthday Party" and running a White House in a similar manner to Wakanda from Black Panther.

Background

On July 4th, 2020, Kanye West^[1] tweeted, "We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States Flag of United States! #2020VISION" (shown below). The tweet gained over 1.1 million likes and 525,800 retweets in two days.

Developments

On July 4th, 2020, Elon Musk tweeted his support for West and received over 340,500 likes in two days.^[2] That same day, Twitter user @byDavidGardner^[3] said, "Kanye West isn’t really gonna run for President, but his next album will be called Presidential Dropout" in a tweet that accumulated over 25,100 likes and 2,800 retweets in two days (shown below, left). According to the FEC,^[10] the only presidential candidate listed is "Kanye Deez Nuts West." Comedian Tiffany Haddish^[4] tweeted West's announcement word for word to mock him and garnered over 26,700 likes and 2,800 retweets in two days.

On July 5th, 2020, Redditor elijahjacobtucker posted a political compass meme to r/politicalcompassmemes^[5] with the caption, "the quadrants react to noted politician Kanye West announcing his Presidential Campaign 2020" (shown below, left). The post received over 4,300 points (98% Upvoted) in a day. That same day, Twitter user @Julian_Epp^[6] posted a Is Fortnite Actually Overrated? meme that gained over 18,700 likes in a day (shown below, right). The Daily Dot^[7] published a collection of memes that imagine Kim Kardashian West as first lady. CNN^[8] and Forbes^[9] also published articles reacting to the announcement.

Platform Announcement

On July 8th, 2020, Forbes^[11] published an interview with West in which he insisted he was serious about his run, despite not having officially put himself on the ballot and being past the deadline to get on the ballot in several states. West also said he no longer supported Donald Trump, and is okay with the prospect of siphoning votes away from Joe Biden. He also came out as anti-vax, said he had COVID-19 in February, and said he'd never voted in his life.

West said he would be running under "The Birthday Party," "because when we win, it’s everybody’s birthday.”

According to West, his White House would be run like Wakanda from Black Panther. His quote reads:

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…That is a positive idea: you got Kanye West, one of the most powerful humans--I’m not saying the most because you got a lot of alien level superpowers and it’s only collectively that we can set it free. Let’s get back to Wakanda… 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. This is not going to be some Nipsey Hussle being murdered, they’re doing a documentary, we have so many soldiers that die for our freedom, our freedom of information, that there is a cure for AIDS out there, there is going to be a mix of big pharma and holistic.”

He also laid out elements of his political beliefs, saying he is anti-capital-punishment, wants prayer back in schools, and is anti-abortion. "Planned Parenthoods have been placed inside cities by white supremacists to do the Devil’s work," he said.

He stated he had not developed a foreign policy plan, saying, "I haven’t developed it yet. I’m focused on protecting America, first, with our great military. Let’s focus on ourselves first."

He also admitted to being unknowledgeable on taxes, saying "I haven’t done enough research on that yet. I will research that with the strongest experts that serve God and come back with the best solution. And that will be my answer for anything that I haven’t researched. I have the earplug in and I’m going to use that earplug."

He also wants to end police brutality while noting that "cops are people too."

His supposed running mate will be Michelle Tidbal, a preacher from Wyoming. Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk would serve as his advisors.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References