When Donald Trump first began commanding media attention with talk about running for president, I wrote the prescient commentary “Trump for President? Don’t Be a Sucker!” April 8, 2011, hence today’s title.
One name explains why Trump ran, and why Kanye might run: Barack Obama.
With respect to Trump, the die was cast when Obama humiliated him at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which included this famous retort to Trump’s racist demand to see his birth certificate:
With Trump in attendance, Obama needled him on the issue by walking out to Rick Derringer’s ‘Real American’ and later ‘revealing’ his ‘long-form birth video,’ which ended up being a clip from ‘The Lion King.’
‘I know that he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate issue to rest, and that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter, like did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?’ Obama said.
(ABC News, November 10, 2016)
Of course, Trump got the last a good laugh just five years later by succeeding Obama. But now he’s an international laughingstock. And only God knows what he might yet do to avenge this perceived slight …
With respect to Kanye, the die was cast when Obama called him a “jackass” for bum-rushing Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs. He did so to declare Beyoncé more worthy of the award for best female video.
This brings me to the open conspiracy afoot:
- The friendship between Trump and Kanye is bonded by their mutual hatred of Obama, which stems from the public humiliation he caused them.
- Both are preternaturally insecure men – whose egos bruise easily and who bear grudges endlessly.
- They will do anything to avenge their humiliation, including a vanity run for president of the United States, obviously.
- In Kanye’s case, this psychopathology is particularly perverse, because he also bears a grudge against fellow Blacks, including Beyoncé. After all, he clearly expected praise for the Black-empowering way he bum-rushed Taylor. Instead he got condemnation and, even worse, ridicule, which forced him to make a groveling apology to save his career. He has never gotten over that, and he will never forgive Black folks for it.
Kanye provided the only noteworthy highlight on the season premiere of Jay Leno’s new prime-time talk show when he appeared and uttered a barely comprehensible apology – through asphyxiated tears – for ruining Taylor’s glorious moment.
(“President Obama Is right, Kanye Is a ‘Jackass’,” The iPINIONS Journal, September 16, 2009)
These four points explain the MAGA madness Kanye has displayed over the past four years. Not that there wasn’t some method to it, mind you.
After all, there’s something to be said for hanging with Republicans — among whom Blacks are so rare, whites treat them like “Diamond & Silk” (a.k.a. Amos ‘N’ Andy Republicans).
On a more serious note, these points also explain Kanye’s attempt now to siphon off enough votes among gullible Blacks and young people to help Trump win re-election.
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
— Ye (@kanyewest) July 4, 2020
That’s what (the announcement of) this Kanye presidential run is all about. And it behooves Team Biden to take it as seriously as a heart attack. Because, as 2016 demonstrated to universal shock and chagrin, it only takes siphoning off a few votes in a few “swing states” for Kanye (as an Independent candidate) to be the spoiler of Trump’s 2020 dreams.
Specifically, Team Biden should begin running ads doing to Kanye’s Yeezy what the NAACP and Jewish groups are doing to Zuckerberg’s Facebook, namely boycotting it. Because nothing will force Kanye to burn his MAGA hat faster than ads tying him to Trump’s racist policies, anti-science bias, and general administrative incompetence. All it will take is one call from the Gap:
Every so often a company does something that just makes so much sense, and the deal that Gap has signed with Kanye West is one of them.
Although the rapper is controversial who brings certain amount of risk by attaching his name to Gap, he is truly an influencer, unlike so many social media personalities to which the moniker is applied.
(The Motley Fool, July 3, 2020)
And yes, though apt, The Motley Fool is a legitimate business news source.
Team Biden should also enlist the Tik-Tok teens and K-Pop Stans who tanked Trump’s Tulsa rally to flood social media with memes aimed at “canceling” Kim Kardashian. Like Ivanka, she clearly wants to have her cake and eat it too.
Only this explains Kim making a public show of helping a few Black folks while supporting Kanye’s bid to destroy the rest of us (i.e., either by re-electing Trump or, God forbid, by getting elected himself).
[Note: This could also be a publicity stunt to help Kanye sell his music and apparel, hence my use of words like “might”, “announcement of” and “vanity run.” But I am all too mindful that Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign began as little more than a publicity stunt to resuscitate ratings for his reality-TV show, The Apprentice. Fool me once, shame on you…; well, George W. Bush I am not.
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Don’t be a sucker… Kanye jackass… Facebook…