Kanye West Declares At The VMA’s That He Will Run For President In 2020

This year’s VMAs was certainly an event full of surprises and jaw-dropping moments.

First of all, Kanye West gave yet another lengthy speech, during which he announced that he would be running for President in 2020. Second of all, Miley Cyrus’s outfit was a cross between futuristic robot gladiator and dominatrix, only to be followed by a string of more bewildering costume changes. Taylor Swift, not so surprisingly, owned the night at this year’s VMAs and won the Video of the Year for her song “Bad Blood.” Finally, Nicki Minaj fiercely called out Miley Cyrus about an interview she gave to the New York Times. More details about that particular tiff can be read in Allison Takeda’s article in Us Magazine.

Essentially, this year’s VMAs featured a lot of recording artists battling for publicity and press. Kanye West seems to be on a roll regarding ridiculous statements at the VMAs (everyone remembers when he cut off Taylor Swift in 2009, right?) But this year, as Deena Zaru highlights in her CNN article, Kanye took it one step further.

“I don’t know what I finna lose after this. It don’t matter, though; It’s not about me. It’s about ideas. New ideas. People with ideas. People who believe in truth…And yes, as you probably could’ve guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president,” he said.

Many people are unsure how serious Kanye West was when he announced this on stage at the VMAs. In addition to West’s track record of saying things that are somewhat “out there,” there’s also the answer Kanye gave when someone asked if he was stoned.

“You all might be thinking right now, ‘I wonder, did he smoke something before he came out here?’ The answer is yes, I rolled up a little something. I knocked the edge off.”

It’s a little bit difficult to believe whether or not Kanye West’s declaration at the VMAs was just a publicity stunt, but perhaps it’s worth taking seriously. After all, Donald Trump’s initial decision to run in the presidential elections for 2016 was laughed at, but he’s now blown up on social media and performing surprisingly well in the campaign. Considering that the minimum qualifications required to run as a presidential candidate, according to the Heritage Guide to the Constitution, include that the person running must be at least 35 years of age and a citizen of the United States, Kanye West might actually have a pretty good chance. If Kanye West’s VMA declaration comes to fruition, the United States will certainly have an entertaining presidential campaign in 2020.

[Images by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]