WHAT’S THE STORY?

JUST when you thought that the US might have had enough of being run by a brash alleged billionaire and former reality television star with a Scottish link, up pops Kanye West to announce that he, too, is running for president in November.

The race to the White House will now between favourite Joe Biden of the Democratic Party, former Democrat supporter-turned-Republic president Donald Trump and Kanye West, former Trump fan, rapper, musician, husband of Kim Kardashian and a candidate for the Birthday Party.

His running mate will be Michelle Tidball, who Forbes magazine described as “an obscure preacher from Wyoming”.

His announcement was brief: “We must now realise the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States.”

WHO IS KANYE WEST AND WHAT IS THE BIRTHDAY PARTY?

THE 43-year-old has one advantage over the incumbent in the White House – he really is a billionaire.

In an extraordinary career in the music business he has sold more than 140 million albums, won numerous awards including 21 Grammys, produced many hits for other artists, designed his own fashion ranges and set up numerous businesses. He is worth an estimated $1.3 billion.

He is married to Kim Kardashian, one of the stars of the Keeping up with the Kardashians reality television show in which West has made frequent appearances. They have four children, two of them delivered by surrogacy.

West is a noted controversialist who has disrupted numerous award shows and gained much criticism and some praise for his outspoken views on everything from race to drugs – he has admitted to an addiction to opioids.

His biggest controversy was when he went to the White House and wore a Make America Great Again hat, telling Trump: “When I put this hat on, it made me feel like Superman. You made a Superman.”

The Birthday Party appears to have been a spur-of-the-moment creation by West during a press interview at the weekend after he announced on Twitter that he was running for president.

He explained: “Because when we win it’s everybody’s birthday”,

His campaign slogan will be “YES!”. The Scottish independence movement might have a case for plagiarism…

WHAT ARE HIS POLICIES?

HE believes he contracted coronavirus in February but he is anti-vaccine saying it is “the mark of the beast”. He will work to end police brutality and will oppose the death penalty.

He is anti-abortion as he is “following the word of the Bible”. He will campaign to remove harmful chemicals that damage the environment and people, and was honest enough to admit he has no foreign policies but is “focused on protecting America first with our great military”.

Asked about his approach to taxes, he said he hadn’t done the necessary research yet: “I will research that with the strongest experts that serve God and come back with the best solution. And that will be my answer for anything that I haven’t researched.”

He professed his love for China: “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.”

He has taken off his pro-Trump hat, adding: “It looks like one big mess to me. I don’t like that I caught wind that he hid in the bunker.”

THE SCOTTISH CONNECTION?

IT’S an extremely tenuous way to put a kilt on this story. It has been known for some time that West’s wife Kim Kardashian is of Scottish descent and that her forebears had links to Rob Roy MacGregor. Her genealogical line can be traced all the way back to Kenneth MacAlpin, acknowledged as the first King of the united nation of Picts and Scots, and thus king of Scotland more than 80 years before England was even founded.

When their fourth child was born via surrogate last year, a hoax tweet said the baby boy had been named Pollokshaws West. In fact his name was revealed as Psalm.

President Donald Trump does have strong links to Scotland being the son of Mary Anne MacLeod, of the Isle of Lewis, but he’d rather you forgot that as she was a poor immigrant to the USA and The Donald’s not fond of immigrants.

IS KANYE WEST SERIOUS AND DOES HE HAVE ANY CHANCE?

HE has spoken about running for the presidency before. There is one slight problem – West has not actually done the paperwork to become a candidate and he has no party organisation, while several states have already passed the deadline for nominations. He apparently thinks he can blame the coronavirus pandemic for various delays.

He also has a new album out. So is this all a publicity stunt? Oops, wasn’t that what they said about Donald Trump?

WHAT’S TRUMP SAYING?

HE apparently thinks the idea of his former big fan-turned-presidential candidate is “interesting”, but in true Trump style he got stuck into his opponent.

“It’d have to be limited to certain states because in some states the deadline has been missed,” he said. “If he did it, he would have to view this as a trial run for what’s going to happen in four years.”

Of course Trump might win in November and do a Putin to change the constitution to make him president for Life. Crazy? Well so is the idea of Kanye West running for president, isn’t it?