Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee weighed in on rapper Kanye West’s announcement on the Fourth of July that he is going to run for president, saying “it’s a free country” and “he can certainly run.”
“I think he’s going to be surprised to find out all of the incredible limitations upon his entertainment career the moment he becomes an official candidate for president,” Huckabee told “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday.
“All of the vast financial reporting that he’s going to be required to do and all of the disclosures, some of which are not going to be pleasant for someone in the entertainment industry, and all of the limitations on the money he can earn and how he can spend it.”
“I think it’s going to be a rude awakening,” he continued.
“We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future,” West tweeted on Saturday. “I am running for president of the United States! #2020VISION.”
On Sunday Huckabee said he has “great respect” for West.
“He seems to be a fascinating character, but he should come talk to me and maybe 16 others of us who stood on the stage with Donald Trump in 2016 and he should ask me how that goes before he really jumps into the deep end of the pool,” Huckabee said.
“I might have some advice for him and I promise it would be good advice.”
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This isn’t the first time West has said he will run for president. He claimed back in 2019, during his appearance at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York City, that he was planning to run in 2024.
When asked what he would advise West on and what his 2020 vision should be, Huckabee said he thinks “we need to recapture the spirit of this country, that pioneer spirit that led people to take incredible risk with themselves, their families, their fortunes and their futures and to build the greatest country on Earth.”
He added that it’s important “to do it with a sense of ever-growing equality and an ever-growing sense of opportunity.”
“We never were a perfect nation,” Huckabee continued. “Our founders even said we’re going to work toward a more perfect union, but they never assumed that we were one or that we would become one … but they always were striving for it to be better and we are better.”
Huckabee went on to say, “I’ve been to a lot of places on Earth, about 70 countries around the globe, I’ve yet to be in one that I thought was better than this one.”
It was unclear if West has a campaign staff as of this time.
