Update: Kanye West 1^st term

After his historical election victory, President-Elect West now had to focus on the transition to his new administration. His meeting with President Pence proved to be very interesting; both men could not have been more different. Pence was a middle-aged Hoosier who had been a conservative radio talk show host and a passionate conservative who was an ardent supporter of the Tea Party; West was a black dude raised in the South Side of Chicago and had hustled his way into the vibrant, dynamic hip-hop business. Both men were also from opposite sides of the political spectrum and had opposite personalities; Pence was low-key and fairly reserved while West was very loud and notorious for being outspoken. The meeting started out very roughly given the dire situation in the country and their differences. But both men gradually reached an understanding; West even convinced Pence to smoke some marijuana and just “chill” with him. Pence felt a little assured that West would be competent at his new job as President, unlike his loudmouth predecessor.

Pence urged conservatives and Trump supporters nationwide to accept Kanye West as President; this was met with reluctant agreement. West publicly commended Pence for his service, apologized for calling him an "old white asshole", and said he learned a lot from their meeting. West urged the country to unite behind his progressive policies; he wanted to truly make America great again and connect with the people. While the speech was well-received and shocking to many who doubted him, it didn’t matter; the Republican Party was finished and split into 3 squabbling factions. The Democrats faced no united opposition to their policies like they had under President Obama.

The only major issue against West was his appointment of Kim Kardashian as Secretary of Health and Human Services. This provoked much criticism and ridicule; Kanye West promised his supporters that they would be proved wrong. He also defended choosing Scooter Braun for Chief of Staff; he said they had both had great success in the hip-hop business and would do well as his “side homie” (Chief of Staff).

In President West’s inaugural address, he announced his first action would be to pardon all people convicted of federal offenses related to possessing and selling marijuana, stating that they didn’t deserve to be rotting in prison for something that wasn’t much of a crime. He promised to decriminalize weed at the federal level, among a laundry list of other progressive reforms. He promised to be a President of the people, the one Trump had claimed he wanted to be but wasn’t. He ended his inaugural address with an impromptu rap about how he wanted to govern as President and how he wanted to be a new type of President. A President unafraid to fight for the people, to speak his mind and get shit done. His rap drew a round of applause and bemused laughter, as people were surprised at the content of his address. President West would later say this moment erased all doubts about ever running for President.

President West would preside over the largest program of social reform since the Great Society. His plan, called the “Dope Society”, consisted of single-payer healthcare, taxpayer funding for abortions, decriminalization of marijuana (Kanye West’s top priority), infrastructure investment, free public university tuition, an end to police brutality, a higher minimum wage indexed to inflation, tax hikes on the wealthy, and other progressive programs. In other words, a liberal’s wet dream and a conservative’s nightmare.

The Democrats had the numbers and clout to get all of this passed. Learning from the mistakes of 2010 and the Affordable Care Act, the Democrats decided to organize things better and have simpler, easier to understand bills. And then let the bureaucrats hammer out the regulations. President West agreed with most of the platform, but he was especially eager to tackle the problems of the inner city. This was the environment he was intimately familiar with and had experience with; he felt personally responsible for continuing the work Presidents Kennedy and LBJ had started. He personally consulted with Congress on a series of bills to help the inner cities, including bills to help improve the funding of inner-city education and welfare programs.

He also wanted to go even further; he wanted to tackle housing segregation and persistent poverty. He stubbornly pushed through reforms that made the federal prison system focus on lighter sentences and more rehabilitation. He sponsored programs to help inner-city people start their own businesses and achieve success; he felt that was a good path for many current criminals and hustlers in these places. He also pioneered education reform; more money was poured in these schools and a more creative, flexible style of education was developed. Finally, manufacturing jobs and service jobs returned to inner cities as people gradually moved into these areas, giving residents unprecedented economic opportunities.

With regards to foreign policy, President West decided to let his VP, Kamala Harris, handle that. He had little interest or knowledge of foreign policy, and he felt it was wiser to let her take care of that. He even handed over control of the nuclear codes, giving her control of the American nuclear arsenal and trusting her judgment more than his own. VP Harris took a tough stance against Russia, imposing sanctions and withdrawing support for the various agreements Trump had made with Russia.

She also shut down the flow of aid to North Korea and covertly backed a group of North Korean generals that overthrew Kim Jong-Un in 2022. The generals set up an interim military council and planned for free democratic elections to be held in 2025; they also signed a treaty with South Korea to create an economic union and a plan for reunification in 2040 (brokered by VP Harris and Secretary of State Rice). While many Koreans would have preferred immediate reunification, there was a massive development gap between both countries and South Korea didn’t have the political will or resources to single-handedly integrate the North. The new economic union proved to be massively successful and helped the North rapidly catch up to its wealthy Southern neighbor.

VP Harris also managed to save NATO; she engaged in negotiations to get Britain and France back into the alliance and pledged additional support that Trump had cut. She also ended the trade war with China and signed an agreement to cut down on China’s trade abuses. Finally, she went around fixing America’s broken relations and standing in the world. Secretary of State Susan Rice often joked that she was the real Secretary of State.

Another major part of West’s Presidency was the tenure of his wife as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Secretary Kardashian entered with very low expectations; her past as a celebrity and dominant pop culture icon still haunted her. She proceeded to prove everyone wrong; she proved to be an effective manager of the department. She cleaned up waste in the Social Security office and tackled issues like welfare fraud. She also heavily promoted the department, giving it nationwide attention thanks to her skills in getting media attention. She overthrew the old, slow bureaucratic style of leadership and introduced a modern, lean, and efficient style of leadership. She also focused especially on tackling obesity, especially that found in children. Her success completely changed her public reputation; people remarked on how far she had come since that 2007 sex tape. She was also the most stylish, social-media skilled First Lady in history.

President West proved to be very popular with approval ratings averaging around 65% at the beginning of 2024. It was morning in America again with unemployment at 4.5% and average wages and incomes rising at a rate not seen since the 1960s. Poverty had declined from 18% in 2020 to 11% in 2024, and it was declining at a faster and faster rate. Labor Secretary Robert Reich was finally happy again; the virtuous cycle of the postwar America was finally back again. President West said “Told you guys I could do it!” But there were still deep economic issues in the Rust Belt and Appalachia; manufacturing jobs and mining jobs hadn’t returned in significant numbers and these regions remained deeply mired in economic despair and hopelessness. President West’s administration paid little attention to these areas; they preferred to focus on the cities and suburbs instead. This would prove to be a costly mistake later on in the decade.

The 2024 election proved to be a cake walk for President West. The Democrats nominated West again, who faced little opposition except for a challenge by disgraced former Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She dropped out after getting crushed in New Hampshire.

The opposition was fragmented. Negotiations to rebuild the Republican Party collapsed. The American Party, under John Kasich, fused with like-minded fiscal conservatives in the Libertarian Party. They nominated Rand Paul for the election, but they doubted his chances as a viable candidate. The right wing populists, divided between Trump and Cruz supporters, failed to settle their differences and unite as one party. This was mostly due to disagreements over social issues and the fact that Cruz’s supporters were increasingly losing clout and shrinking in power. Cruz was renominated by the Constitution Party. Trump supporters had dissolved the Republican Party in 2021 and formed the American Freedom Party, which drew its support from Trump’s base of white working class supporters throughout the country. They nominated Donald Trump Jr. as their candidate. While the 3 parties featured some interesting ideas, they were crushed due to splitting the anti-Democratic vote and general popularity of President West and his party.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact had been ratified by 30 Democratic-controlled state legislatures by 2024, which essentially made the election for President decided by the nationwide popular vote. This was done in response to the situation in 2016 where Hillary Clinton had beaten Trump in the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College. The winner of the nationwide popular vote would receive all of the electoral votes from the states in the compact, getting a guaranteed majority and effectively becoming President. The results were as follows:

Kanye West: 58.5%

Rand Paul: 22.5%

Donald Trump Jr.: 10.5%

Ted Cruz: 8.5%

President West celebrated his victory by smoking weed with his wife and Cabinet. Susan Rice declined due to personal reasons.