Kanye West’s 2024 presidential campaign off to slow start with zero contributions last year
KUALA LUMPUR: Will controversial rapper and fashion designer Kanye West be pulling out of the 2024 presidential bid now that there are no contributions to his campaign?
Despite not receiving any donations, the 45-year-old has continued spending as shown in a filing submitted earlier this week to itemise his expenses in the last three months of 2022.
In the filing, West was said to have paid Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes more than US$9,000 (RM38,182) for “travel reimbursement” on the same date in November when the rapper and Fuentes dined with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, accompanied by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.
Speaking to The Daily Beast, Fuentes said the travel expenses were “incurred by myself and the team when I relocated to LA in November to do work for Kanye 2020”.
Yiannopoulos also appeared on the filing as receiving US$40,000 (RM169,700) for “campaign wrap up services” in mid-December when West fired him as well as another US$10,000 (RM42,425) for a “domain transfer” on the same date as the Mar-a-Lago dinner.
West wore a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt to a Paris fashion show before things quickly escalating after a rambling appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show that was later revealed to have been edited to remove a slew of antisemitic remarks.
In response to criticism, the rapper promised to go “death con 3” on the Jews, triggering former co-workers and acquaintances to out him as a deeply entrenched antisemite and longtime fan of Adolf Hitler, which in turn cost him lucrative business deals.