Kanye West announced with an Independence Day tweet that he intends to run for president in 2020 – 122 days before the Nov. 3 election.
“We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future,” West, 43, wrote on Twitter. ”I am running for president of the United States!”
He ended the tweet with a #2020VISION hashtag.
The news was received with memes of disbelief and endorsement, including from his wife, Kim Kardashian West, who tweeted an American flag emoji, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who tweeted, “You have my full support!”
USA TODAY has reached out to West’s representative for comment or elaboration.
On July 1, West tweeted a picture of himself next to Musk, writing, “When you go to your boys house and you’re both wearing orange.”
West has talked about running for president in the past. In 2015, he announced his bid for the White House at the MTV Video Music Awards while accepting the Video Vanguard Award.
“It’s about ideas, bro. New ideas. People with ideas. People who believe in truth,” West said during the rambling speech. “And, yes, as you probably could have guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president.”
Last November, he talked about moving manufacturing for his company Yeezy to the United States to create new jobs.
“When I run for president in 2024, we would’ve created so many jobs that I’m not going to run, I’m going to walk,” he said.
But he started 2019 in full support of President Trump, who would now be his opponent in the election. During a New Year’s Day tweet-fest, West declared, ”Trump all day” followed by dragon emojis and “you know where I stand.”
The dragons were likely reference to past tweets where West said he and Trump both have “dragon energy” that makes them “Natural born leaders.”
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