Despite having sworn to distance himself from politics just a couple of months ago, Kanye West has kicked off 2019 in typically controversial fashion, re-affirming his support for Donald Trump, committing to wearing the ‘MAGA’ cap and teasing the possibility of running for president. Again.

In a series of tweets on New Year’s Day, the 41 year old rapper decided to break a short period of silence where all he was doing was posting pictures of trees and national parks to return to his seeming default mode.

“Trump all day,” West posted, followed by a tweet of just three dragon emojis, an apparent reference to his description of himself and the American president sharing ‘dragon energy’. Explaining himself, a further tweet stated: “Just so in 2019 you know where I stand.”

“From now on I’m performing with my mutherf***ing hat on,” West continued, referencing the ‘Make America Great Again’ baseball cap that Trump sported during much of his presidential campaign and which West himself has occasionally worn, to great outcry from the hip-hop community. Among those who’ve criticised him include Pusha T, whose 2018 album DAYTONA Kanye produced, and who said that the ‘MAGA’ cap was “this generation’s Ku Klux hood”.

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“One of my favourite of many things about what the Trump hat represents to me is that people can’t tell me what to do because I’m black,” West later explained about why he finds the cap so appealing.

In early October last year, West met with Trump in the White House and spoke about race relations, tax breaks, criminal justice and mental health. Soon afterwards, apparently responding to criticism from hard-conservative commentator Candace Owens, he pledged that politics would take a back seat and that he was “completely focussing on being creative!!!”

However, West then seemingly re-stated his political ambitions, by simply tweeting “2024” – an allusion to his much-reported statements from a few years back that he was considering running for the Oval Office.

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