American rapper Kanye West chose the 4th of July to announce his bid for the 2020 US Presidential elections. An ardent supporter of right-wing President Donald Trump, West (44) announced his bid in a tweet. 

“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”, West tweeted. His wife and reality TV celebrity, Kim Kardashian commented on it, with an American flag.

With just four months to the elections, slated on November 4, it isn’t clear how will he go about it, and whether he has filed official paperwork.

The US election system allows for independent candidates to run for the highest office. He’ll have to meet a variety of complex, state-specific filing requirements and deadlines, in order to make his way to the ballot, later this year.

These state-level regulations include collecting a certain number of signatures or paying a filing fee, Ballotpedia reported. The deadline for filing as an independent candidate is still open in several states.

Even if he’s able to make his way to the elections, it’s not clear whether he’ll be able to put up a fight, due to the paucity of time. However, it’s possible he could impact the elections by taking votes from either Joe Biden or President Donald Trump, who is seeking a second term, this year. 

What are his political views?

On multiple occasions and platforms, he has professed his support for Trump and his policies. Trump is a right-wing politician, who has often been accused of being the reason for the rise of racism, Islamophobia, anti-semitism and majoritarianism in the United States.

In a 2018 meeting with Trump at the White House, he donned a ‘MAGA’ (Make America Great Again) hat, a trademark of the Trump campaign. He spoke at length on a range of issues, including the criminal justice system, racism and his own mental health.

But Kanye does not explicitly support the Republican party. In 2005, he lashed out at the then-Republican President George W. Bush, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when he said, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”. 

The African-American rapper has hit out at the former Democratic President Barack Obama, when he tweeted, “Obama was in office for eight years and nothing in Chicago changed”.

At his 2018 White House meeting with Trump, when asked if he would run in 2020, West replied, “Only after 2024. Let’s stop worrying about the future. All we really have is today. We just have today”, Guardian reported.