White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged Kanye West's VMAs declaration that he'd run for president in 2020Credit: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster; Kevin Mazur/MTV1415/WireImage
Bound 2 Be President? FourFiveSeconds From the White House? Yeezus Take the Wheel? Kanye West declared at the 2015 VMAs on Sunday, Aug. 30, that he plans to run for president in 2020, so naturally, lots of people -- including White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest -- are wondering what the rapper's campaign might look like.
Earnest was traveling aboard Air Force One with President Barack Obama on Aug. 31 when he was asked about West's out-of-left-field announcement, which came at the end of his long, rambling acceptance speech for MTV's Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.
Acknowledging the "Black Skinhead" performer's political bid, Earnest told the Associated Press he looks "forward to seeing what slogan he chooses to embroider on his campaign hat."
West has been to the White House before, of course, but just as a visitor. Still, this isn't the first time he's grouped himself in with Washington, D.C.'s elite.
Back in March, the Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy creator told Oxford University students that President Obama "calls the home phone" to talk to him and his wife, Kim Kardashian. (The Commander in Chief later told Jimmy Kimmel that while he enjoys Yeezy's music, he doesn't have the rapper's home number.)
West also said in 2013 that he and Kardashian -- who share daughter North, 2, and also have a little boy on the way -- are more "influential" than the President and the First Lady.
"There's no way Kim Kardashian shouldn't be on the cover of Vogue. She's like the most intriguing woman right now," he told Ryan Seacrest at the time. (The couple later appeared on the April 2014 cover of the magazine.) "Collectively, we're the most influential with clothing. No one is looking at what [President Barack Obama] is wearing. Michelle Obamacannot Instagram a pic like what my girl Instagrammed the other day.
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