CommentsELECTION 2024 - Kanye West says he’s planning to run for president in 2024, and he’s tapped disgraced ex-gay alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos to work on his campaign.
West and Yiannopoulos were spotted on Saturday by celebrity gossip site X17entering the rapper’s atelier.
“This is Milo right here, working on the campaign,” West says in the clip.
“Is that an announcement,” Yiannopoulos asks with a laugh.
“I guess it is,” West responds.
“Thanks, I accept,” says Yiannopoulos as both men laugh.
West then takes the cameraman inside his studio to show off what appears to be “Ye24” campaign merchandise.
“So, are you running?” the person filming presses.
“Yes,” West replies after a long pause. “It’s simple ’cause ain’t nobody can tell me, you know, ‘You should say this, you shouldn’t say that,’ you know? It’s just we’re moving towards the future.”
West goes on to ramble about cutting up hoodies from his collabs with Adidas, Balenciaga, and his own Yeezy line, making sure that “everyone can receive the same level of cuts, the same level of food, the same level of water, the same level of education,” and “engineering opportunities.”
The video comes after West has received widespread condemnation for antisemitic remarks and tweets that got him banned from Twitter. His account was recently reinstated after his friend Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform.
Yiannopoulos has his own well-documented track record of provocations. He rose to fame as an alt-right online troll by attacking transgender people. He was permanently banned from Twitter in 2016 for harassing actor Leslie Jones for her role in the Ghostbusters movie.
In 2017, he was fired from Brietbart News after videos surfaced featuring Yiannopoulos appearing to condone statutory rape and sexual relationships between underage boys and men.
Yiannopoulos previously identified as gay and married his long-time boyfriend in 2017. But in a 2021 interview, he claimed to be an “ex-gay”.
In June, he was reportedly working as an unpaid intern for anti-LGBTQ congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
(John Russell is a writer for LGBTNation.com where this story was first published.)
