Kanye West Hints at Another Presidential Run

Rapper Kanye West, seen in this February 10, 2020, file photo Jean-Baptiste Lacroix AFP/File
Rapper Kanye West, seen in this February 10, 2020, file photo Jean-Baptiste Lacroix AFP/File
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Kanye West Hints at Another Presidential Run

Rapper Kanye West, seen in this February 10, 2020, file photo Jean-Baptiste Lacroix AFP/File
Rapper Kanye West, seen in this February 10, 2020, file photo Jean-Baptiste Lacroix AFP/File

The rapper and fashion designer Kanye West has suggested he will run for president in 2024 and wants Donald Trump to be his running mate.

The artist, who goes by the name Ye, posted Thursday a swirling symbol on his Twitter account with "Ye" and the number 24, apparently representing 2024, the year of the next US presidential election.

Then the rapper posted a video of himself speaking about a recent meeting with the former president in Florida, AFP said.

"I think the thing that Trump was most perturbed about (was) me asking him to be my vice president," West said.

"Trump started basically screaming at me at the table, telling me I'm going to lose," West said. "I'm like, hold on Trump, you're talking to Ye."

Trump, who tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election he lost to Joe Biden, said November 15 that he would run again in 2024. Trump's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Ye remarks.

The artist posted two days ago that he had visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago, his palatial Florida home.

"Can't believe I kept President Trump waiting," he posted on Twitter.

"What you guys think his response was when I asked him to be my running mate in 2024?"

It was not clear whether the rapper was serious about his intentions -- or if he sought publicity after a spate of PR moves that put him in a negative light.

West is a veteran at garnering publicity -- and dabbling in politics. He ran for president in 2020, but got fewer than 70,000 votes, coming in seventh place.

Last month, German sportswear giant Adidas severed its lucrative tie-up with West after the star made anti-Semitic statements.

Adidas later said the termination of ties with West had forced it to slash its forecast of net income for 2022 by half. West had helped Adidas develop its successful "Yeezy" line of clothing.

Paris fashion house Balanciaga and US clothing retailer Gap have also ended ties with West, who appeared at a Paris fashion show last month wearing a shirt with the slogan "White Lives Matter," a rebuke to the Black Lives Matter racial equality movement.



Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, Aya Nakamura: Set for Olympics Opening Ceremony?

Lady Gaga said she was recording a new album. Tolga Akmen / AFP/File
Lady Gaga said she was recording a new album. Tolga Akmen / AFP/File
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Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, Aya Nakamura: Set for Olympics Opening Ceremony?

Lady Gaga said she was recording a new album. Tolga Akmen / AFP/File
Lady Gaga said she was recording a new album. Tolga Akmen / AFP/File

World-famous stars are in line to perform at Friday's opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, which will take place along the Seine river.
The exact line-up is a tightly guarded secret, but here are three performers strongly rumored to be appearing:
Lady Gaga
One of the world's biggest-selling artists, pop queen Lady Gaga -- real name Stefani Germanotta -- brings extravagant showmanship and costumes to the stage, along with her infectious electropop beats.
She won an Oscar for "Shallow", a song she co-wrote for the 2018 film remake "A Star is Born".
In that film she sang the classic "La Vie en rose" by French legend Edith Piaf -- whose songs are expected to feature in the Olympics extravaganza.
Lady Gaga was seen arriving at a hotel in the French capital days ahead of the opening bash.
Her anticipated Olympic turn comes during a busy year for the Oscar-winning US songwriter, 38.
Earlier this month she announced she was back in the studio at work on a new album.
She also appears as love-interest Harley Quinn in the new "Joker" movie, screening at the Venice Film Festival that starts in late August.
"Music is one of the most powerful things the world has to offer," she said prior to her electrifying 2017 Super Bowl halftime show performance.
"No matter what race or religion or nationality or sexual orientation or gender that you are, it has the power to unite us."
Celine Dion
Canadian superstar singer Dion is set to return to the spotlight after her fight against a rare illness was laid bare in a recent documentary.
She has been posing for selfies with fans around Paris since the start of the week.
Sources have indicated she may sing Piaf's stirring love anthem "Hymne A l'Amour" at the ceremony.
If she performs it will be the 56-year-old Dion's second time at the Games, after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Last month she vowed she would fight her way back from the debilitating rare neurological condition that has kept her off stage.
Dion first disclosed in December 2022 that she had been diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome, an incurable autoimmune disorder.
But she told US network NBC in June: "I'm going to go back onstage, even if I have to crawl. Even if I have to talk with my hands, I will. I will."
She has sold more than 250 million albums during a career spanning decades, and picked up two Grammys for her rendition of "My Heart Will Go On", the hit song from the 1997 epic "Titanic".
Aya Nakamura
Franco-Malian R&B superstar Aya Nakamura, 29, is the most listened to French-speaking singer in the world, with seven billion streams online.
She is known for hits such as "Djadja", which has close to a billion streams on YouTube alone, and "Pookie".
She faced down a wave of abuse from right-wing activists over her mooted Olympics appearance.
The backlash came after media reports suggested she had discussed performing a song by Piaf at a meeting with President Emmanuel Macron.
Neither party confirmed the claim but Macron publicly backed the singer for the Olympics ceremony.
Far-right politicians and conservatives have accused her of "vulgarity" and disrespecting the French language in her lyrics.
Born Aya Danioko in the Malian capital Bamako in 1995 into a family of traditional musicians, she moved with her parents to the Paris suburbs as a child.
She told AFP in an interview in 2020 her music was about "feelings of love in all their aspects".
"I have made my own musical universe and that is what I am most proud of. I make the music I like, even if people try to pigeon-hole me."