Kanye West has officially severed ties with President Donald Trump.
In a tell-all interview with Forbes published Wednesday (July 8), the “Stronger” rapper — who declared he’d be running for president this year — formally revealed he no longer supports President Trump. Elsewhere in the interview, Ye reveals the moment he knew he wanted to run for president, who his running mate for the 2020 election will be and more.
In 2018, West infamously wore Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) hat as his official endorsement for the controversial head of state — a lot has changed since then. “I am taking the red hat off, with this interview,” West told Forbes.
Explaining his decision to endorse the MAGA message back then, West explained, “One of the main reasons I wore the red hat as a protest to the segregation of votes in the Black community. Also, other than the fact that I like Trump hotels and the saxophones in the lobby.”
The “Black Skinhead” star also revealed his running mate will be Michelle Tidball, “obscure preacher from Wyoming,” and that his new political banner will be called the Birthday Party. “Because when we win, it’s everybody’s birthday,” he explained.
As most everyone knows, Ye announced his presidential run on the Fourth of July. The declaration was years in the making, according to the lyricist, who recalled the exact moment the idea of becoming the president had dawned on him.
“It’s when I was being offered the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Awards at MTV,” he told the outlet. “I remember being at my mom’s house, my mother-in-law, because my house was being worked on, she calls me ‘son’ and I call her ‘mom,’ I was in the shower thinking, I write raps in the shower. It hit me to say, ‘you’re going to run for president’ and I started laughing hysterically, I was like this is the best, I’m going to go out there and they’re going to think I’m going to do these songs and do this for entertainment, how rigged awards shows are, and then say I’m president. And I just laughed in the shower, I don’t know for how long, but that’s the moment it hit me.”
Read the full profile over at Forbes here.
