Kanye West saved Sunday’s VMAs from fully descending into neon-hued Twitter hell, but will the 2020 presidential run he announced while accepting his Video Vanguard Award save America from whatever political dynasty or billionaire megalomaniac seizes executive power in 2016?
That question has dominated the media’s imagination for much of this pre-Labor Day week. Yesterday, Motherboard asked a handful of writers imagined what a Kanye presidency might look like, which resulted in some excellent fan fiction. And this morning, The New Yorker unveiled next week’s cover (below), featuring none other than a newly elected President West. Illustrator Barry Blitt told the magazine he was inspired by Harry Truman’s press-confounding 1948 victory over Thomas Dewey. (If you’re still confused about why the newspaper Kanye’s holding up proclaims — shudder — Trump the victor, allow Wikipedia to explain. But also: Is Blitt throwing USA Today some shade?)
