Kanye West says he no longer backs Donald Trump and is serious about running for U.S. president as the candidate for the newly-created Birthday Party.
“Like anything I’ve ever done in my life, I’m going to win,” the rap star told Forbes. West believes “God appoints the president” and added: “If I win in 2020 then it was God’s appointment. If I win in 2024 then that was God’s appointment.”
West declared that he is taking off the red “Make America Great Again” cap for good. “It looks like one big mess to me,” he said of the current presidency. “I don’t like that I caught wind that he hid in the bunker.”
West said his campaign slogan will be “YES!” and his running mate is Wyoming preacher Michelle Tidball.
West, who admitted to never having cast a ballot in his life, said he registered as a voter for the first time on Monday.
Skeptics believe West's announcement on July 4th that he is running for president is either a publicity stunt for his new album or a plot to help get his friend Trump re-elected.
MORE: Kanye West: "I Am Running For President"
He told Forbes that assuming he will steal Black votes from Democratic candidate Joe Biden is racist.
“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,” he said, accusing the Democrats of “threatening” Black voters.
Asked about COVID-19 (“We need to stop doing things that make God mad”), West gave a dangerously ill-informed response.
“It’s so many of our children that are being vaccinated and paralyzed… So when they say the way we’re going to fix Covid is with a vaccine, I’m extremely cautious,” he said. “That’s the mark of the beast. They want to put chips inside of us, they want to do all kinds of things, to make it where we can’t cross the gates of heaven.
"I'm sorry when I say they, the humans that have the Devil inside them. And the sad thing is that, the saddest thing is that we all won’t make it to heaven, that there’ll be some of us that do not make it.”
West also claimed to have had COVID-19. “Chills, shaking in the bed, taking hot showers, looking at videos telling me what I'm supposed to do to get over it,” he recalled. “I remember someone had told me Drake had the coronavirus and my response was Drake can’t be sicker than me!”
The rapper said he hasn’t come up with a platform on issues like taxes and foreign policy but he’s committed to eliminating chemicals in personal care products, getting rid of the death penalty and expanding the NBA around the world.
“When I’m president, let’s also have some fun,” said West. “Let’s get past all the racism conversation, let’s empower people with 40 acres and a mule, let’s give some land, that’s the plan.”
Last year, West opened up about his mental health issues during an interview on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman.
“If you don’t take medication every day to keep you at a certain state, you have a potential to ramp up and it can take you to a point where you can even end up in the hospital," West explained. “And you start acting erratic, as TMZ would put it. When you ramp up, it expresses your personality more. You can become almost more adolescent in your expression.
West, who was diagnosed as bipolar, said he becomes delusional during these episodes. “When you’re in this state, you're hyper-paranoid about everything. Everyone – this is my experience, other people have different experiences – everyone now is an actor. Everything's a conspiracy.
"You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things. You have this moment [where] you feel everyone wants to kill you. You pretty much don’t trust anyone."
If you are, or someone you know is, suffering a mental health crisis, click here to find resources.