Can Kanye West be elected President of the United States?

“We must now fulfill America's promise by trusting in God, unifying our visions and building our future. I am a candidate for the presidency of the United States! " The declaration could appear to come from a Republican candidate from the "Bible Belt", but it comes from Kanye West, a media rapper integrated by his wife into the very famous Kardashian family.

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 🇺🇸! # 2020VISION

It is not the first time that Kanye West has made such a statement. In 2005, one of his albums alluded to it, and 10 years later, at the MTV Video Awards ceremony, he formally announced his intention to compete in 2020. Intention repeated a year later in the song Facts: "2020, I'ma run the whole election, yah! ("2020 I will win the election!").

But in the following years, thanks to a rapprochement with Donald Trump, Kanye West had declared that he wanted to compete instead for 2024, when the current president of the United States would have used up all his possible mandates. What is the reason for this change of date, and is this candidacy serious?

A vague commitment

To ask this question is first to examine the personality of Kanye West himself, and his commitments, which appear steeped in contradictions. Let us take its commitment against racism. The rapper stood out in 2010 when he participated in a boycott of concerts in Arizona, to protest against an anti-immigration law. Recently, he also gave two million dollars to the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, an American and two black Americans killed by the police, and was even seen in a demonstration of the Black Live Matters movement in Chicago, his hometown. His latest clip, Wash Us In The Blood , also includes footage of recent anti-racism protests.

But Kanye West is also the one who protested slavery activist Harriet Tubman's choice for the future 20 dollar bill ("Why don't you put Michael Jordan on the 20 dollar bill?") and who then called slavery the choice ("We hear about slavery that lasted 400 years. For 400 years? Sounds like a choice"). "He is not an activist of Black Live Matters, he is not part of the civil rights movement", estimates Olivier Richomme, HDR lecturer of American civilization at the University Lumière Lyon-2. "There is no political message in Wash Us In The Blood , it represents more of an opportunism, one has the impression that he is riding the George Floyd wave", adds Marie Cécile Naves. The political scientist believes that, unlike pop star Beyoncé for example, he is "not at all in a position in favor of blacks or emancipation".

Especially Kanye West has a behavior too "erratic" and unstable for his candidacy to be considered serious, said Nicole Bacharan, specialist in American society. "He is half barge, no credibility, he has endless pans," judges Olivier Richomme even more cash. It is true that the rapper has often hit the headlines for his psychiatric and drug problems.

Well, who for the presidency of the United States?

Blow of com '?

For all the specialists from the United States that we interviewed, his candidacy seems so incongruous that it is legitimate to wonder if it does not hide a coup de com. An advertisement which coincides in any case perfectly with the release of his single four days earlier, which announces a new album, God's Country . To appear just before the presidential election, scheduled for November?

"I do not know if it is a real political calculation or just business," wonders Marie Cécile Naves, author of many books on the United States and on Donald Trump. "We find it difficult to see the coherence of a commitment, we have the impression that it is doing blows," wonders the political scientist, who judges that in the midst of the anti-racist movement, his political positioning, while he "Is forced to support Black Lives Matters because the black youth buys him discs", appears more like "commercial opportunism".

"He has no chance"

Blow of com or sincere commitment, the candidacy of Kanye West has very little chance of succeeding, judge the four specialists we interviewed, first of all because the electoral system in the United States is shaped by an important bipartisanship and a system of primaries, in which the rapper is not inserted at all.

"It's wacky, a campaign goes through primaries, it can not campaign in all states, it is not even a candidacy of testimonies," judges the historian of the United States François Durpair. In the history of the United States, there have indeed been very few independents who have thrown themselves into the presidential campaign. This was the case in 1992 and 1996, with the billionaire Ross Perot, but "he had prepared himself a long time in advance," says the historian.

"He has no chance," said Olivier Richomme, who described the rapper's candidacy as "an epiphenomenon that will have very few consequences". Nicole Bacharan and Marie Cécile Naves both point out that it is already too late in some states to apply. ” Trump's The World author, however, is cautious: "Someone who shows up in July 2020 with only money and the support of Elon Musk, I can't see his place on polling day. But in 2016, I thought that Trump could not be elected, it reduced my certainties… ”

Trump's alter ego

Kanye West in any case resembles in many ways the man of the 2016 poker stroke, Donald Trump. They are two specialists in the buzz, addicted to Twitter, followers of a "brutal and reactionary virility", stars of telerality, with immense notoriety and fortune, "elements that help to start a campaign" according to Nicole Bacharan.

In this sense, the candidacy of Kanye West is especially symbolic of the current state of American society and political life, where "the candidacy of Trump gave the feeling that anything was possible" according to the political scientist. Who even adds: "This proves that this country has gone completely mad". A statement approved by Marie Cécile Naves, who observes a mixture of genres between business and entertainment which raises questions but "is part of Trump's America".

Kanye West, future President of the United States? Unlikely, according to Olivier Richomme, but his candidacy risks adding "more chaos to the political situation".

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