Source: The Washington Post / Getty
In news that everyone could have predicted,
Kanye West says he no longer supports Donald Trump. The Chicago producer, designer, creative and more still claims he’s running for President this year, though, allegedly—probably not.
In a new, flagrantly wild interview with
Forbes magazine, West said he is done backing the racist POTUS.
“I am taking the red hat off, with this interview,” Yeezy told
Forbes, the same mag that drew his ire for not saying he was rich enough. Which makes this a good a time as any to mention
West is catching flack for finessing over $2M in PPP funds from the government.
Apparently, Trump hiding out in a bunker may have been the final straw.
“It looks like one big mess to me,” said West. “I don’t like that I caught wind that he hid in the bunker.”
Mercifully,
Forbes just formatted the interview in pullquotes for the most part, and most of them are doozies.
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On why he donned the MAGA hat aka the new Confederate flag: “One of the main reasons I wore the red hat as a protest to the segregation of votes in the Black community. Also, other than the fact that I like Trump hotels and the saxophones in the lobby.”
Okay.
Another head-scratcher is West’s take on Black History Month: “Oh one other thing, Black History Month. That is torture porn because when that comes up what we do is we see—and by the way, if I get that vibe—that’s the process and we are going to a beautiful, uplifting, fun, creative process as a people, as America collectively, and show the world how great we are. So here we go. Black History Month every year they gotta remind us about the fact that we couldn’t vote, they meaning white supremacy construct, and I said that with the CT at the end, I knew what was I was talking about…Our minds are so much more infinite than what’s coming across TikTok or Instagram, what’s trying to influence our children and the next generation of who we are.”
As for the running for the President jig, West says he even has a running mate—Michelle Tidball, who is described as a preacher from Wyoming. Kudos for tapping a woman as a potential VP. However, West has not filed any of the necessary paperwork to actually appear on anyone’s ballot.
Also he’s not “running” as a Republican or a Democrat but under the banner of the “Birthday Party” because in his words, “when we win, it’s everybody’s birthday.”
But how does deal with systemic racism, high unemployment, immigration or infrastructure issues, though? To be fair, West does say ending police brutality would be a priority. But even that answer gets a side-eye since he’s sympathizing with a cop involved a man’s death: “One of my to-do lists is to end police brutality. The police are people too. To end laws that don’t make sense.
Like, in the George Floyd case, there was a Black guy that went to jail and it was his first day on the force. So if it’s your first day on the force and it’s your training day, and this OG accredited cop with 18 violations already starts filing out, are you going to jump in front of that person and lose your job that same day? Especially in this climate when 40,000 people lost their jobs? This man was put in a position where—and also he probably didn’t realize that the cop was going to take it that far, he probably was so scared, in shock, paralyzed, like so many Black people. I’m one of the few Black people that would speak openly like this.”
And then West’s take on Democrats was another WTF answer: “That is a form of racism and white supremacy and white control to say that all Black people need to be Democrat and to assume that me running is me splitting the vote. All of that information is being charged up on social media platform by Democrats. And Democrats used to tell me, the same Democrats have threatened me…. The reason why this is the first day I registered to vote is because I was scared. I was told that if I voted on Trump my music career would be over. I was threatened into being in one party. I was threatened as a celebrity into being in one party. I was threatened as a Black man into the Democratic party. And that’s what the Democrats are doing, emotionally, to my people. Threatening them to the point where this white man can tell a Black man if you don’t vote for me, you’re not Black.”
That last sentence seems to refer to
Joe Biden’s now infamous The Breakfast Club interview.
Kanye West won’t be splitting any votes because dude isn’t running for President for real, for real. For now, his campaign “advisors” are allegedly Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk. He even told Forbes he’ll be making a formal decision within 30 days since he would be missing deadlines to get on state ballots after that period.
Good luck with that. Peep some of the best reactions to Yeezy’s latest interview below, and peep all of
West’s hot takes right here. So, when is the new album dropping?
