LOS ANGELES – Controversial American rapper-businessman Kanye West has confirmed he is running to be president of the United States in 2024, with the help of alt-right figure Milo Yiannopoulos.

According to entertainment portal Consequence Of Sound, the music mogul, who failed in his 2020 presidential bid, said to paparazzi: “Yes. It’s simple. It’s just we’re moving towards the future.”

The 45-year-old has been associating with the alt-right recently, such as his purchase of Parler, a conservative social networking platform, and introduced Yiannopoulos as someone “who is working on the campaign”.

Yiannopoulos, 38, is a former senior editor at far-right news website Breitbart News Network, and most recently interned for Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

British but based in the United States, he made the news in 2019 when he was barred from entering Australia for a tour after making comments about the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand.

The provocative political commentator also frequently airs his views on Islam, feminism and the LGBTQ+ community, and has been permanently banned from Twitter and Facebook.

West’s previous presidential bid, under the banner of the Birthday Party, garnered only 70,000 votes.

He has made headlines in recent months, with his anti-Semitic rants in October leading to him losing a number of sponsors and partnerships, including his collaborations with Adidas, Gap and Balenciaga.

West, who changed his name legally to Ye, also courted controversy with his White Lives Matter slogan on T-shirts for his Yeezy line at Paris Fashion Week in October.