Donald Trump on Why He Hopes Kanye Runs for President
Kanye West made waves during Sunday night’s MTV Video Music Awards when he capped off his 13-minute acceptance speech by announcing his plan to run for president of the United States in 2020.
Since then, comparisons between West and GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump have abounded. As Jimmy Kimmel pointed out in a recent video, they do have at least a few things in common, like bombast, a deep desire to be liked and an obsession with media ratings.
A market research firm even got a head start on polling for West’s 2020 bid, and found that Trump would beat West in a hypothetical election held today.
What does Trump think of all this? Rolling Stone got a chance to ask the presidential candidate during an exclusive sit-down interview at his offices in Trump Tower Tuesday. It turns out Trump is a big Kanye fan (these days, at least), and believes the feeling is mutual: “He’s said very nice things about me in the past… extremely positive things,” said the candidate, noting that he doesn’t “quite get” the comparisons between the two of them.
He also thinks he might’ve inspired West: “I was actually watching, I saw him [announce his candidacy on the VMAs], and I said, ‘That’s very interesting. I wonder who gave him that idea?'”
“He’s actually a different kind of person than people think. He’s a nice guy,” Trump said of West. “I hope to run against him someday.”