​Kanye’s baffling move after meltdown ​

Following a highly-publicised Twitter meltdown and standoff with his wife and her family, Kanye West’s surprise 2020 presidential bid appeared to have fallen by the wayside.

But it seems the rapper, 43, is still intent on running in the November election.

According to state documents, West has now filed to appear on the New Jersey ballot for the upcoming vote, collecting 1,327 signatures, easily surpassing the 800 that was required for independent presidential candidates.

He submitted similar paperwork on Monday to appear on Missouri’s ballot and is planning to do the same in New York, where he’ll need 30,000 signatures by Thursday, according to the New York Post.

West has already revealed he is running as an independent under the banner of Birthday Party.

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Earlier this month, West filed the Statement of Organisation paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, along with the US$35,000 (AU$49,000) fee to appear on the ballot in Oklahoma, but has since been described as entering into a serious bipolar “episode”, casting doubt over his campaign intentions.

West has spoken openly about his mental health struggles in the past and was spotted walking into a hospital in Wyoming, where he is currently living, over the weekend.

Before his hospital visit, West tweeted an apology to his wife Kim Kardashian.

“I would like to apologise to my wife Kim for going public with something that was a private matter,” he wrote. “I did not cover her like she has covered me. To Kim I want to say I know I hurt you. Please forgive me. Thank you for always being there for me.”

The couple were photographed in an emotional reunion on Monday, with Kardashian in tears during a conversation in their car.
 

According to TMZ, Kardashian flew to Wyoming to try and convince her husband to seek medical help for bipolar disorder with the belief he is currently in the middle of a bipolar episode, but he is refusing.

West’s apology to Kardashian came after the rapper held a presidential campaign rally in North Carolina where he shared intimate details about he and the reality star’s decision not to abort their daughter North.

During the emotional rally, West broke down in tears as he spoke about how he and his wife had considered terminating the pregnancy.
 

The emotional behaviour at the rally sparked concerns for West’s mental health, which both he and Kardashian have publicly addressed. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016.

Following the rally, West posted a series of explosive tweets in which he accused Kardashian and her mother Kris Jenner of trying to “lock him up”.

Kardashian broke her silence about her husband’s mental health last week, posting a statement to Instagram in which she defended the rapper and made mention of his bipolar disorder.

“Anyone who has this or has a loved one in their life who does, knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand,” she wrote.

“I’ve never spoken publicly about how this has affected us at home because I am very protective of our children and Kanye’s right to privacy when it comes to his health.”

But Kardashian said she felt compelled to speak out because “of the stigma and misconceptions of mental health”.
 

BIPOLAR DISORDER

West has previously confirmed in interviews that he has bipolar disorder.

In 2018, the cover of his Ye album featured the line: “I hate being bipolar. It’s awesome.”

He later said in an interview: “I had never been diagnosed until I was 39. But like I said on the album, it’s not a disability, it’s a superpower.”

Speaking to Vogue in 2019, Kardashian opened up about her husband’s struggles and said he wasn’t on medication.

“For him, being on medication is not really an option, because it just changes who he is,” she said at the time.

“Right now everything is really calm. But we can definitely feel episodes coming, and we know how to handle them.”

Kardashian said in the same interview: “I thi

nk some of the hurtful things that I read online: ‘What is she doing? She’s not stopping him …’ Like it’s my fault if he does or says something that they don’t agree with?

“That’s my husband,” she said. “I share every opinion that I have and let him know when I think something’s wrong. Or if it comes to him being in the middle of a bipolar episode, I’ll do everything to be supportive and help to calm the situation.”

In an interview with David Letterman, West once explained what it was like to go through an “episode”.

“When you’re in this state, you’re hyper-paranoid about everything,” he said.

“Everyone — this is my experience, other people have different experiences — everyone now is an actor. Everything’s a conspiracy. You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things,” he continued. “You pretty much don’t trust anyone.”