American musician Kanye West said on his Twitter that he intends to run for president of the United States.
“Now we must“ fulfill America’s hopes, ”trusting God, uniting our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States! ”, The rapper wrote.
The artist accompanied his message with the hashtag # 2020VISION.
Recall, Kanye West is one of the most successful musicians in the world, the total sales of his albums and singles in 2019 exceeded 120 million copies. West is also the founder of the YEEZY brand clothing line.
In 2019 and 2020, West ranked second in the ranking of the highest paid artists in the world according to Forbes magazine. According to different versions, the state of the artist can vary from $ 1 billion to $ 3 billion.
This is not the first time Kanye West has announced his presidential ambitions. In particular, he spoke about this on the stage of the MTV Video Music Awards in 2015. A year later, the performer surprised his fans by speaking with the support of Donald Trump.
In October 2018, the musician was invited to meet with Trump at the White House, for which he was criticized by the media and fans, who considered him to be indulging in the president’s allegedly racist and authoritarian policies.
West himself later stated that he now understands that he was "used to spread ideas" in which he "does not believe."
“I am going to step back from politics and devote myself completely to creativity,” he emphasized then.
At the same time, in the same 2018, West again announced its intention to participate in the presidential election, specifying that we are talking about the 2024 campaign.
Now West’s plans have already been supported by his friend, billionaire and inventor Elon Musk.
“I totally support you,” Musk wrote under the tweet of the musician.
“Predicting success is pretty hard.”
Kanye West is not the only celebrity who may be among the participants in the presidential race in 2024. A few days earlier, U.S. media such as Politico and Business Insider, citing Republican political experts, said they were considering running Fox News as the top candidate for the 2024 election, Tucker Carlson.
“He is a talented speaker with a huge platform. I think if he decides to run, he will be a serious candidate, ”quoted Politico to the words of Luke Thompson, the Republican Party’s political strategist who in 2016 worked at the headquarters of presidential candidate Jeb Bush, brother of ex-president George W. Bush.
- Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson
- Reuters
- © Lucas Jackson
Carlson hosts a daily evening news program called Fox Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News, which is very popular with viewers. In mid-June, Forbes magazine reported that an average of 4 million people regularly watch the program. These indicators were obtained from June 8 to June 14. Forbes June 30 reported that, having closed the quarter with an average of more than 4.3 million viewers per evening, Carlson has become the most popular presenter in the history of cable news programs in the US.
In his program, Carlson promotes the political platform through which Donald Trump won the election in 2016 - restricting illegal immigration to the United States, economic populism, and America's first isolationism.
At the same time, the presenter during his broadcasts criticizes not only the Democratic Party and its supporters, who, he believes, are trying to ruin the United States and turn them into a third world country, but also Donald Trump himself and his advisers in the person of Jared Kushner, which the TV presenter notes, they do not heed the aspirations of the "silent majority" and do not fulfill the promises given to voters.
Tucker Carslon, using his platform, is not afraid to make statements that in the current political climate of the United States are regarded as extremely politically incorrect. So, the host criticized the Black Lives Matter movement and, at the same time, the Republican Party members who support it.
After this, amid ongoing protests in the United States against "systemic racism," a number of major sponsors, including Disney, Papa John's pizzeria and the mobile giant T-Mobile, recalled ads from Carlson’s show.
However, Republican political strategists believe that it was Tucker Carslon’s confrontational policy that could make him popular with voters.
“His words resonate with many people. Most Republican politicians do not talk about these problems and do nothing about them. Fearlessness has its advantages, and he is indeed a very brave man, which cannot be said about most Republican politicians, ”said Rich Lowry, editor of the conservative National Review magazine.
Politico, in turn, claims that at least 16 senior GOP members support Carlson's nomination for president in 2024 if Donald Trump is defeated in a fight with Joe Biden.
“I will say this: if Biden wins and Tucker decides to run, then the nomination is guaranteed for him,” said Sam Nanberg, a former adviser to Trump, personally acquainted with Carlson.
Experts note that the political system in the United States, unlike other countries today, is more prone to the fact that a newcomer who does not have experience in politics can take part in the elections, and even win, as happened with Trump.
At the same time, Yuri Rogulev, director of the F. Roosevelt Foundation for the Study of the United States at Moscow State University, recalled in an interview with RT that before Trump, there were populist politicians from Hollywood in the United States who held federal posts. However, for example, television popularity does not guarantee successful political activity, the expert added.
“A person related to show business, television in the United States and enjoying a certain popularity, will have chances in the presidential election. But it’s one thing to show on television, and another to be a politician, ”Rogulev says.
For example, the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, was connected with Hollywood at the beginning of his career, but he devoted a significant part of his life to political activity.
“Acting talents, of course, came in handy in his new field, but by the time he became president, he already had a lot of political experience. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who nominated himself for the post of governor of California and won, on the contrary, got a bad experience, ”the expert explained.
In addition, in his opinion, the intention of Kanye West to run for president does not seem unfounded.
“The idea of nominating representatives of the African American community of the United States has intensified with the departure of Barack Obama. There was a big campaign for the nomination of Oprah Winfrey for the Democratic presidential candidate instead of Hillary Clinton. Such proposals, thoughts, desires will arise in the future, but it’s rather difficult to predict their success, ”Rogulev says.
“Standard politician does not fit”
American political scientist Dmitry Drobnitsky, in turn, believes that the Republican Party is intensely looking for someone who could lead the ideology of "trampism" after Donald Tramp himself.
“It is clear that these ideas remain and someone will have to carry them further. Obviously, the old republican programs work worse than those that replaced them along with Trump. Now it is being decided who will carry the flag of “trampism” further. Tucker Carlson is absolutely obvious here, because he is a very popular presenter, and says things on the air that no one else voices, ”the political scientist said.
In turn, Kanye West represents the desire of a certain part of the African American electorate to no longer follow in the wake of the Democratic Party, Dmitry Drobnitsky added. Now, in the context of the tense internal political situation in the United States, parties and movements need bright personalities to reflect a certain kind of position.
“In such a situation, a standard politician is not suitable. Therefore, media personalities are replacing them. If you have a serious internal struggle and non-standard elections, where a lot is decided, populists come forward who know how to submit an idea. That is, in itself, this trend brings upward people with media experience and outrageous. She also helped Trump at one time, ”the political scientist explained.
At the same time, however, the mere need for candidates like Donald Trump, Kanye West and Tucker Carlson testifies to "a serious crisis of American democracy and statehood," the expert said.
“It is clear that now the whole system is in a deep crisis. Look at the situation with coronavirus and protests, this is the collapse of government. It turns out that the system needs to be "rebuilt" anew, and on what basis - this is being solved now. One part of society wants to tear down everything existing and build a new one, hence the unrest ... They have not had such a crisis since the Civil War, ”states Drobnitsky.