He’s running — but not until 2024. He’s a Trump fan, you see, enough so to be tweeting out Scott Adams videos(!), and so he’s not going to run against his buddy.

Which is nice, although I’m of two minds about it.

On the one hand, the guy frequently sounds like he’s … a few tracks short of an LP, if you know what I mean. In this tweet, for instance, he seems on the cusp of lapsing into a Charlie Sheen “tiger blood” soliloquy.

You don't have to agree with trump but the mob can't make me not love him. We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don't agree with everything anyone does. That's what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.

— ye (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018

On the other hand, anything that makes Toure this sad can only be good:

He tweeted “I love the way Candace Owens thinks” and it felt like a circuit breaker in my mind broke. What does that really mean? Owens says racial oppression doesn’t exist, racism has nothing to do with police killing black men, and Black Lives Matter activists are pretending to be oppressed. She gives comfort to white people on the right, telling them racism is in the past and they have nothing to apologize for and no work to do to help current black Americans. What part of all that does Kanye love? And how much does she get paid for saying it?…

Kanye’s making it harder to love Kanye. It’s always been hard loving Kanye, but the righty rhetoric aligns him with people and ideas that are actively hostile toward black and brown people. I’m going to continue to try to keep loving him because, you know, he’s made so much great music, but there’s only so many times that he can play with right-wing toys before I start to feel like nah, there’s no beat hot enough and no verse dope enough to make me put on your record and also forget that you think it’s cool to co-sign people whose politics are dangerous for black people.

Interesting thought experiment. How hot must Kanye’s beats get, how dope must his rhymes be, to earn him a continuing pass on right-wing rhetoric? If he uncorks something new on the level of “Stronger,” does that entitle him to a week of tweeting Jordan Peterson videos? If he comes up with another “Runaway,” can he join the alt-right?

I see it in my mind’s end with crystal clarity, the new track from Yeezy: “Redpilled,” featuring Milo.

Anyway. He’s running:

2024

— ye (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018

when we become president we have to change the name of the plane from Air Force one to Yeezy force one ☝️

— ye (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018

Harvey Levin of TMZ your hearing from your future president. Let's be friends. Please never use the word erratic to describe a person who is economically and psychologically empowered

— ye (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018

Friends and family are reportedly concerned for his well-being, and you can understand why. Kanye must be nuts to think Americans would hand momentous political power to a callow celebrity whose narcissism has deluded him into believing he’s qualified for the job.

No, really, though, he’s got a shot. America’s in the late stages of imperial decline and cultural collapse, and Democrats have learned the hard lesson that entertainers with a blue-collar following really can win national elections. Why not roll the dice? His main obstacle is that the left may still believe in politics *just* enough to lead them to look past him towards someone more traditional to get things done. Unlike the GOP, they have an actual policy agenda — single-payer health care, open borders, potentially guaranteed employment or a universal basic income. There are things they want to do with government, in which case it helps to have someone in charge with some expertise in policy and some knowledge of how to work the levers of power to make it happen. That’s not really true of Republicans. Which leads to an inescapable conclusion:

Kanye should run for the GOP nomination in 2024.

Better him than, ugh, Mike Pence or Nikki Haley, no?

Update: Trump/West 2020 isn’t out of the question, you know.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/989225812166696960

Update: You think I’m kidding?

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/989222392630202368

Update: Kanye’s better half assures you that he’s not in the sunken place. If you don’t know what that term refers you, I’ll let you google it and be surprised.

Update: They’re still going.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/989252420294336512