“We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision, and building our future. I am running for president of the United States”
Kanye Omari West announced on Twitter on the fourth of July, widely celebrated across the United States of America as the Independence Day.
This, however, wasn’t the first time West had declared to run for President. Previously, while accepting an award at the MTV Video Music Awards 2015, he claimed to run for President in 2020. Four years down the lane, at an event in November last year, West said “When I run for President in 2024, we would’ve created so many jobs that I’m not going to run, I’m going to walk.”
Now, this is exactly why his unexpected declaration came as a surprise to many.
West's announcement speedily garnered a range of reactions. Elon Musk, endorsed his tweet saying, "You have my full support!". However, at the point when his remarks on the coronavirus vaccine and abortion circulated around the internet, Elon rushed to withdraw his help and tweeted- “We may have more differences of opinion than I anticipated”.
US President Donald Trump called West’s announcement “very interesting”. He also said- "If he did it, he would have to view this as a trial run for what's going to happen in four years, "noting that it may be too late for West to register in some states and that he lacks the infrastructure for a presidential bid.
Now, it wasn’t clear immediately if West was surely vying for President considering jumping into the race, very late for the November 3rd election. He’d face struggles with getting on the ballot in many states and with less than a month to formalize his bid.
But a couple of days later, the rapper, designer, and entrepreneur confirmed that he was sure about a bid, not as a Republican or a Democrat but under the banner “Birthday Party”, “Because when we win, it’s everybody’s birthday”.
In a wide-ranging, follow-up interview with Forbes, West supported numerous proposals to increase voting access, including making Election Day a national holiday. He peddled Covid-19 vaccine conspiracy theories, indicating he planned on being “extremely cautious” about a vaccine and claiming the government was attempting to put “chips” inside us. He also said he envisions the United States modeled after the nation of Wakanda from the movie ‘Black Panther’, “A lot of Africans do not like the movie (‘Black Panther’) and representation of themselves in … Wakanda. But I’m gonna use the framework of Wakanda right now because it’s the best explanation of what our design group is going to feel like in the White House,” he said, also planning to bring a “Design” team to the presidency to form policies.
On the 14th of July, Steve Kramer, a member of West’s campaign team, told Intelligencer, “He’s out”. He also confirmed with New York Magazine, that he had already started a build out a campaign operation in a frantic effort to get the rapper on the ballot in key states. West had apparently hired “paid and volunteer” staff, Kramer claimed, to assist him to obtain the number of signatures required to get on the ballot in Florida and South Carolina. New York magazine’s reporter reached out to West’s publicist for confirmation, the rapper’s team “went dark,” and Kramer consequently confirmed that West had dropped out of the Presidential race.
The back and forth surrounding Kanye West‘s 2020 presidential bid continued until finally on Wedn
esday, July 15, Kanye West officially registered to appear on the ballot as a presidential candidate in the state of Oklahoma.
A public affairs officer for the Oklahoma Board of Elections told New York that a representative for West showed up at the Oklahoma Board of Elections with a properly executed statement of candidacy and the $35,000 filing fee.
In other news, President Donald Trump, on 6th of July issued an order that banned the entry or stay of international students on student VISAs in the United States of America, this order gained tons of traction and outrage from media houses and the student community internationally, there were massive protests within the United States against this order issued by their president who’s one of the most powerful men of the free world and is well known for making erratic decisions in times of crisis. The Trump administration upon receiving such massive amounts of backlash from various communities of the society felt the need to reconsider this harsh ban. We were sure that the administration would reconsider their decision when we got the news that a series of lawsuits filed by a large number of educational institutions, led by the Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), seeking a permanent injunctive relief to bar the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from enforcing the federal guidelines barring international students attending colleges and universities offering only online courses from staying in the country.
As many as 17 US states along with top American IT companies such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, joined MIT and Harvard in the US District Court in Massachusetts against the DHS and the ICE in seeking an injunction to stop the entire rule from going into effect.
The announcement about the reversal of the decision came as a huge relief to not just the Indian but the whole International student community who were waiting desperately to get back to their respective educational institutions. The lawsuit said that the new rule implies huge economic repercussions by stopping thousands of international students from coming to and residing in the US and finding employment in fields such as science, technology, healthcare, business and finance, and education, and contributing to the overall economy.
Companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft and other IT advocacy groups, stated that the order issued by this tyrannous trump administration would disrupt their recruiting plans, making it impossible to bring onboard international students on which these Multi-billion dollar firms rely. They also worried about these students who gained their education and skills from the United States of America would now work for international competitors of major US-based companies and it affected the economy furthermore.
The administration finally overturned the order and that might not be the most beneficial in terms of Pandemic spread prevention but it most certainly does have its economic advantages for the American economy and the multiple big and small company’s on who’s backs its built.
Now no matter how you slice this, it’s real news!!
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