OPINION:
Kanye West, Yeezy to friends and fans alike, made a surprise appearance at Fast Company’s 2019 Innovation Festival and in between talking with his clothing designer Steven Smith, and chatting up his latest “Jesus Is King” album, made this quick remark: And oh yes, I’ll be running for president in 2024.
The audience laughed. The next day’s media coverage mocked. But let’s remember Donald Trump, circa June 2015. They all laughed, too. And then it was President Donald Trump, circa November 2016.
“When I run for president in 2024, we want to definitely …” West said, XXL Mag reported, before being cut off by a laughing audience. “Yo, what ya’ll laughing at? When I run for president in 2024, we would’ve created so many jobs that I’m not going to run, I’m going to walk.”
West is not a johnny-come-lately to this political aspiration.
A month ago, he told Zane Lowe in an interview that “there will be a time when I will be the president of the U.S.”
And he’s made the claim at various points in his public rapping career in recent times — all the while visiting Trump in the White House and taking political stances in support of the current administration.
Meanwhile, West just announced he’s moving his Yeezy sneaker manufacturing operations to Cody, Wyoming, in part, to create more job opportunities in America.
“We have a 4,000-acre ranch and a couple of other properties out there,” West said, People reported. “Our goal is within the next two years to bring the manufacturing back to America … and bring it back stateside and also present jobs for people back here.”
Nothing funny about that.
Nothing mockable in that.
But what of Kim, you say?
What of West’s wife, Kim Kardashian West, and the idea of a first lady whose preferred style of dress is half naked — strutting about the White House?
Well, there’s this, from LifeZette: “Kim Kardashian Is Returning to ’Traditional Moral Values,’ Will Dress More Modestly Now.”
Kardashian West’s over-the-top sexy fashion has been a sticking point with West for some time. After a recent argument with West about her dress, she said, “I do think that, you know, he is my husband, so I obviously want to honor him and what he’s feeling.”
Liberal feminists will howl.
But if West is serious about running for the White House — as serious as he says he is about his conversion to Christianity — then his jobs’ creation in Wyoming and his newly made over wife are both political pluses.
At the very least, America shouldn’t laugh.
It’s not just unkind.
It’s ineffective at dampening enthusiasm.
It’s a show of just the kind of elitism that average Americans hate.
After all, if Trump can win it against opponents who were backed by party purses, trained in political strategies and entrenched in D.C. life, then West, with all his popularity and name-brand recognition should not be automatically dismissed.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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