Twitter explodes as Kanye West announces US presidential bid; to take on Trump and Biden?

Kanye West sent Twitter users into a frenzy when he announced that he intends to run for the president of the US in the upcoming 2020 election. The 43-year-old rapper appears to have reiterated his announcement back in 2015.

Husband of Kim Kardashian West took to Twitter on Saturday and wrote: "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." He also used the hashtag #2020VISION. Tesla boss Elon Musk, tweeted in response, "You have my full support!"

At the time of this writing, the post that went viral within hours of posting, has garnered 287k retweets, 517k likes and 48k comments. West has a strong fan following of 29.4 million on Twitter. He is trending on Twitter in the US.

It is not clear whether West is joking, but his past statements regarding a possible presidential bid indicate that he might be partially serious. The rapper had announced at the MTV VMAs in 2015 that he would run for president in 2020.

In November last year, Kanye West in his speechat the Fast Company Innovation Festival, announced he would be running in 2024. But, the audience started laughing at his claim. He said: "What y'all laughing at? We would create so many jobs! I'm not going to run, I'm going to walk."

West doesn't seem to have filed nomination forms with the Federal Election Commission to run for office currently, according to a Bloomberg review of FEC data. If he is seriously considering becoming the president of the US, there is host of hurdles for him to overcome. For any candidate, starting a campaign from scratch in July is a big deal when election is scheduled for November.

The rapper would need to qualify for ballot access across 50 states and the District of Columbia. He would also need to build a presidential-grade political organisation from scratch without the support of a party infrastructure.