During an interview with Joe Rogan, Kanye West revealed that Oprah Winfrey told him not to run for president after he announced that he would run during the 2015 MTV VMAs. He explained, “I remember running into Oprah two days or one day after that, and she’s like you don’t want to be president. One of the things Oprah said is she said, ‘you got to bone up on your foreign affairs.’ I remember this, because it’s Oprah talking, so I’m gonna remember a lot of what the conversation was, but that’s the first thing she said was foreign affairs and foreign policies.”
Kanye also revealed that he was medicated after his infamous 2018 appearance on TMZ. He explained, “They told me I was bipolar. I remember going on TMZ and saying, ‘Slavery is a choice,’ and they medicated me for saying that. For having that opinion and saying it out loud. As I put those contracts up, I’m saying, ‘This is a choice.'”
He also revealed that he registered for his presidential bid so late because of COVID-19. He explained, “Why did I register so late to run for president? COVID. I had the virus and I was sitting in quarantine in my house and my cousin texts me about being prepared to run for president. And I just completely put it off to the side ‘cause I was like shivering and having the shakes and taking hot showers and eating soup. … Coronavirus threw everyone off. It threw everybody’s plans off. And then it was just this calling on my heart.”
