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| Rapper Kanye West speaks during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in 2018 |
Rapper Kanye West signaled he no longer supports U.S. President Donald Trump and said he had entered the presidential race to win it, in an interview published on Wednesday.
West, previously a vocal supporter of Trump, announced on Saturday that he would run for president in 2020.
โI am taking the red hat off, with this interview,โ West told Forbes, referring to Trumpโs trademark red โMake America Great Againโ baseball cap. โLike anything Iโve ever done in my life, Iโm doing (this) to win,โ he added.
He told the magazine he will run under a new banner โ the Birthday Party. West and his reality TV star wife Kim Kardashian West have visited Trump in the White House.
West denied that his aim was to split the Black vote and hurt the chances of Trumpโs Democratic opponent, Joe Biden. It was โa form of racism and white supremacyโ to suggest all Black people should support the Democrats, he said.
The rapper told Forbes he had been ill with COVID-19 in February, and would be suspicious of any vaccines developed to prevent the infection. Repeating false theories that link vaccines with child developmental disorders, he said: โSo when they say the way weโre going to fix COVID is with a vaccine, Iโm extremely cautious.โ
โThatโs 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 canโt cross the gates of heaven,โ he added.
REUTERS
