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Kanye West reaffirms vow to run for president in 2024

Christopher Hooton
Wednesday 25 April 2018 09:35 BST
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Kanye West's recent Twitter barrage has taken a turn towards the political over the last couple of days, with West expressing his appreciation of black conservative commentator Candace Owens and discussing his desire to 'challenge conventional black thought'.

This concluded with him apparently renewing his promise to stage a presidential bid late last night, tweeting simply: "2024".

The rapper also tweeted the year on 13 December, 2016, revising his initial claim that he would run for president in 2020 that he made at the 2015 MTV Awards.

“Rappers are philosophers of our now, celebrities are the influencers of our now, just look at the president,” he explained in 2016. “[Trump] wasn’t in politics and won.”

West met Trump not long after his election "to discuss multicultural issues” such as “bullying, supporting teachers, modernizing curriculums, and violence in Chicago."

He added: “I feel it is important to have a direct line of communication with our future President if we truly want change.”

Kanye West told a radio presenter he 'loves Donald Trump' during an off-air phone conversation

Speaking to Vanity Fair in 2015, West said of his surprise announcement: “As soon as I said [I was going to run for president], it was like, ‘Wait a second, we would really be into that, because actually if you think about it, he’s extremely thoughtful. Every time he’s ever gotten in trouble, he was really jumping in front of a bullet for someone else. He’s probably the most honest celebrity that we have.’

"I didn’t approach that because I thought it would be fun. It wasn’t like, Oh, let’s go rent some jet skis in Hawaii. No, the exact opposite. I sit in clubs and I’m like, Wow, I’ve got five years before I go and run for office and I’ve got a lot of research to do, I’ve got a lot of growing up to do.”

West has suggested he will release a new album consisting of seven songs in June.

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