Kanye West’s controversial policies as he runs for President – from vaccines to space travel
As the rapper and fashion mogul presses ahead with his Presidential bid following a tearful rally, his positions have raised eyebrows with some and been lauded by others
Video Loading
Click to play
Tap to play
The video will start in 8Cancel
Kanye West is running for President of the United States.
And while some question whether the rapper, entrepreneur and reality star is actually aiming for the White House or simply hopes for a publicity slam dunk, he’s pressing forward.
Following a heated, emotional and at points tearful campaign launch in South Carolina, some voters are still left wondering what Kanye would do with the USA in his hands.
Some of his proposed positions on topics, ranging from abortion to education, race relations to America’s space programme, have provoked both applause and concern.
What he’s made crystal clear, though, is that his string Christian faith will inform all levels of decision-making.
Abortion
Among Kanye’s more controversial viewpoints is his abortion stance – one of the hottest political issues across the pond.
During his explosive Forbes interview, he made clear that he sticks to “the word of the Bible” – interpreted by many as meaning he stands in opposition.
But last night saw Kanye elaborate on his position with a personal tale – in which, he claimed, divine intervention had convinced him and wife Kim Kardashian-West not to get an abortion..
“I almost killed my daughter,” he said.
Kanye now shares four children with wife Kim.
He then clarified, having brought a pro-choice activist onto stage, that he wasn’t entirely opposed to abortion – but supported granting financial assistance to pregnant women to have their child.
“My stance is not to make abortion illegal,” he revealed, “It should always be legal.
“But there should be an option of maximum increase available…Maximum increase would be, everybody that has a baby gets a million dollars.”
He also said that his dad had wanted his mum to get an abortion when she was pregnant with him.
Vaccinations
Another hot-button issue flagged by Kanye in his Forbes issue was that of a vaccine for coronavirus.
While stopping short of an outright, hard condemnation of a vaccination, it seemed his position was one of opposition.
“It’s so many of our children that are being vaccinated and paralysed…” he said, “so when they say the way we’re going to fix COVID is with a vaccine, I’m extremely cautious.
“That’s the mark of the beast.”
He added that the pandemic, which has taken 143,000 American lives, is “all about God. We need to stop doing things that make God mad.”
Space travel and exploration
Kanye told Forbes that he’d been chatting with SpaceX CEO and billionaire Elon Musk “for years” and had proposed that he head up President West’s space programme.
Elon publicly endorsed Kanye, and then was reported to have redacted his support.
But now he’s told he’s back on board, despite believing 2024 would be a more realistic target than November this year.
Death penalty
Kanye’s outright in his opposition to the death penalty – again justifying it in strictly Christian terms.
“Thou shalt not kill,” he quoted the Bible.
The death penalty is legal in certain states.
Education
The US Constitution established the separation of church and state – but Kanye wants to bring worship to the classroom.
He asserted: “Reinstate in God’s state, in God’s country, the fear and love of God in all schools and organisations and you chill the fear and love of everything else.”
Race relations
In one of the most contentious issues of 2020, Kanye exhibits a range of opinion – making it difficult to decode what his actual policies would be.
He told Forbes that tackling police brutality – following the death of George Floyd – would be high on the agenda were he to make it to the Oval Office.
Referencing his former support of current President Donald Trump, he told he wore the Make America Great Again hat “as a protest to the segregation of votes in the black community…”
He added: “To say that the black vote is Democratic is a form of racism and white supremacy.”
Kanye made waves after previously referring to Black History Month as “torture porn” and suggesting that the enslavement of African Americans had been “a choice.”
He stirred fresh controversy in South Carolina when he insisted that slavery abolitionist Harriet Tubman – one of America’s most revered historical figures – “never actually freed the slaves, she just had slaves go work for other white people.”
Foreign policy
Kanye himself admits he’s got some thinking to do in this area.
But while he acknowledges he’s got research to do, his stance on China seems to stray far from opponent Trump’s.
Trump has been outspoken in his criticism of China, but Kanye told in a Los Angeles Times profile that he holds the country in high esteem.
He also urged followers not to succumb to racist rhetoric aimed at China amid the coronavirus crisis.
“I love China, I love China,” Kanye told, “It’s not China’s fault, that disease. It’s not the Chinese people’s fault.
“They’re God’s people, also. I love China, it changed my life.
“It changed my perspective, it gave me such a wide perspective. My mom as an English professor taught English in China when I was in fifth grade.”
Taxation
This was another area where Kanye admitted his knowledge was lacking.
He did, however, pledge to work alongside “the strongest experts that serve God” to craft the fairest overall tax system.
MirrorCeleb
More On