Kanye West breaks ranks with Trump, announces platform

Rapper Kanye West signalled he no longer supports U.S. President Donald Trump and said he had entered the presidential race to win it, in an interview published on Wednesday.

West, previously a vocal supporter of Trump, announced on Saturday that he would run for president in 2020.

“I am taking the red hat off, with this interview.

“Like anything I’ve ever done in my life, I’m doing this to win,’’ West told Forbes, referring to Trump’s trademark red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap.

He told the magazine he would run under a new banner, the Birthday Party.

West and his reality TV star wife, Kim Kardashian West, have visited Trump in the White House.

He, however, denied that his aim was to split the Black vote and hurt the chances of Trump’s Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.

“It was a form of racism and white supremacy to suggest all Black people should support the Democrats’’ he said.

The rapper told Forbes he had been ill with COVID-19 in February and would be suspicious of any vaccines developed to prevent the infection, repeating false theories that link vaccines with child developmental disorders.

“So, when they say the way we’re going to fix COVID-19 is with a vaccine, I’m extremely cautious, as that’s the mark of the beast.

“They want to put chips inside of us, they want to do all kinds of things, to make it where we can’t cross the gates of heaven,’’ Kanye added.

(Reuters/NAN)