Kanye West dropped out of the 2020 U.S. presidential race – after a heart-to-heart talk with President Donald Trump.
According to Washington insiders, Trump convinced his good friend to drop out of the race because the publicity surrounding West’s run was negatively impacting his own campaign.
The 43-year-old rapper announced his intention to run for president two weeks ago. Democrats immediately accused West of conspiring with Trump to help him siphon off Democratic votes.
“So Trump got Kanye to try to split the Black vote,” tweeted @DrBFPalmer on July 5.
And @JB93621 tweeted: “Yep gonna try and split young votes from Biden and help his buddy trump get re-elected.”
According to New York Magazine‘s Intelligencer magazine, Steve Kramer confirmed the Yeezy rapper won’t be running against Trump and Joe Biden for the POTUS position.
“He’s out,” Kramer said, according to the publication.
The election strategist added: “I have nothing good or bad to say about Kanye. Everyone has their personal decision about why they make decisions.”
Kramer joined West’s campaign team to get the rapper on the ballot in Florida and South Carolina.
When asked for more details on what had happened, Kramer replied: “I’ll let you know what I know once I get all our stuff canceled. We had over 180 people out there today.”
But Washington insiders say Trump called West and convinced him to drop out of the race because his campaign was hampered by the controversy surrounding West.
“Trump asked him to drop out, so Kanye’s out,” said the insider.
West tried to put some distance between himself and Trump by claiming he no longer supported the president after he “caught wind that he hid in the bunker” during the Black Lives Matter uprising in Washington, D.C. last month.
Trump, 73, brushed aside news that West was gunning for his job in a recent chat with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. The president expressed confidence that his job was safe.
“He is always going to be for us, and his wife is going to be for us,” Trump said, referring to the rapper and reality TV star Kim Kardashian West.
“[He’s a] very good guy. He is a person that I get along with very well,” Trump said. “At the end I think he would support us over anyone else, we have to stop the radical left from taking over our country.”
Tesla boss Elon Musk, who was West’s campaign adviser, reportedly also asked the rapper to drop out of the race. Musk later said West wasn’t ready to run for president until 2024.
