White House

Kanye West is on the California ballot ... as a VICE PRESIDENTIAL candidate.

The mail-in ballots are being mailed out, and Ye's on the American Independent Party. The A.I.P.'s presidential candidate is Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente Guerra.

So how, you ask, can Kanye be both the presidential candidate for the Birthday Party and the vice presidential candidate for the American Independent Party?  Well, from what we can see, it's entirely possible/likely Kanye didn't consent to the nom, but then again ...

As we reported, Ye's pick for Veep on the Birthday ticket is Michelle Tidball. She has not publicly said if she's down with the nom.

Oh, and if you're wondering who Roque is ... he's the owner of De La Fuente car dealerships. He has lots of cash and some political ambition. He ran for Prez as a Democrat years ago, and then switched parties to Independent in 2016. He's challenged Senator Dianne Feinstein ... in fact, he's run for U.S. Senate in 9 different states at the same time.

President Trump will be flown to Walter Reed Military Hospital for continued treatment for COVID-19.

The White House just announced the President will be flown to the renowned Bethesda, MD facility on Friday afternoon. It's a dramatic turn, considering the administration previously said he was "fatigued" and experiencing "mild symptoms."

The Marine One helicopter has already landed on the South Lawn at the White House ... ready to transport Trump.

The White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany says, "Out of an abundance of caution, and at the recommendation of his physician and medical experts, the President will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days.”

Sources connected to the White House tell us the move is primarily because they want an added level of safety for the President, considering he's high risk due to his age and weight.

We're told his illness was obvious Friday during conference calls, and he was unusually quiet. There were early signs Thursday night when he called in to Sean Hannity's show on Fox News around 9:30 PM Eastern time -- he sounded like he had low energy and a case of the sniffles.

We're told, at that point, Trump already suspected he had COVID-19 ... although, he didn't announce his test results on Twitter until almost 1 AM Eastern time.

Story developing ...

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have both contracted the coronavirus.

The President broke the news with a tweet -- at nearly 1 AM Friday in D.C. -- saying ... "Tonight @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER."

The alarming news comes hours after we learned one of the President's aides, Hope Hicks, had tested positive. Hope had been traveling on Air Force One all week with POTUS ... going to and from the presidential debate in Cleveland ... and also to his rally in Minnesota.

The impact is far-reaching. Trump came into contact with numerous people over the last 5 days, including Joe Biden on the debate stage, and his Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. And, then there's his treasury secretary -- someone who frequently meets with the president -- who had a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Vice President Pence has tested negative, but there's still a window of risk since he's been in contact with Trump over the last week.

Trump was not feeling well on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg News, so it's also unclear how long Trump has been COVID positive.

Furthermore, what's unclear -- who gave the virus to whom? Did Trump contract the virus from Hope Hicks or vice versa, or did they contract it from someone else?

There's no good time to contract the virus, but it comes at a particularly critical time for the President ... less than 5 weeks before Election Day. We don't yet know if he and Melania are experiencing symptoms, but the First Lady tweeted that they are "feeling good."

Trump has made no secret of how much he hates wearing face masks, and has done it in public very rarely since the pandemic began.

The last time we saw him wearing one in public was a week ago at the public viewing for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg outside the Supreme Court.

During the debate on Tuesday night, he did pull one out of his pocket as he claimed to have no issue with wearing face coverings. It's worth noting, at 74 years old he is in a high-risk category for COVID-19. Melania is only 50.

As you know, Trump has logged a lot of miles this week -- traveling with his inner circle of aides and attending large scale events. Once contact tracing is done ... it's possible a large number of people will need to be tested immediately and quarantined.

So far, the administration is saying the Prez and Melania will remain in their White House residence while they quarantine. It's unclear how long that will last, but typically doctors recommend 14 days.

And, if you're wondering ... the next presidential debate is exactly 14 days away.

President Trump's close aide, Hope Hicks, has reportedly tested positive for the coronavirus after flying on Air Force One this week with the Prez.

Hope's positive COVID-19 test comes on the heels of her traveling to and from Tuesday's debate in Cleveland -- as well as a roundtrip flight to Trump's Wednesday rally in Minnesota ... according to a Bloomberg News report.

The report says she is experiencing symptoms now ... however, there's no indication POTUS has contracted the virus.

Hope is working for Trump again as a "counselor to the President" after previously serving as his communications director, and working on his 2016 campaign.

We reached out to the White House, and deputy press secretary Judd Deere would not comment about Hope or the President's health. He did tell us, "The President takes the health and safety of himself and everyone who works in support of him and the American people very seriously."

He continued, "White House Operations collaborates with the Physician to the President and the White House Military Office to ensure all plans and procedures incorporate current CDC guidance and best practices for limiting COVID-19 exposure to the greatest extent possible both on complex and when the President is traveling."

No, Hassan Whiteside did NOT threaten to leave America and move to Hawaii in the wake of that insane debate Tuesday night ... insisting he was framed on social media.

After the Trump vs. Biden debate, someone posted a tweet that appeared to be from the 31-year-old NBA star's official account, saying "i can't do this for four more years f*** america bro im moving to Hawaii"

The quote went viral (because it's hilarious) -- and was even picked up by some pretty big websites.

But, Hassan -- the REAL Hassan -- went to Instagram on Wednesday to call BS on the whole thing.

"If you want some clout, ya ain't gotta make fake tweets about me! You ain't gotta make fake tweets," Hassan said.

So, fake news ... but glad he cleared it all up.

JoJo's coming through with an uplifting message for folks disillusioned by the first presidential debate ... and it's all in her new song.

The singer joined us Thursday on "TMZ Live" to download us on her track called "The Change" ... which was written by mega hitmaker Diane Warren. JoJo says it will remind you why it's so important to vote, and although it's not a political song -- she admits it has added meaning coming so soon after President Trump and Joe Biden's showdown.

"The Change" drops Friday, which is gonna be a huge day for JoJo ... she's been a huge fan of the Crash Bandicoot video game ever since she was a kid ... and Friday also marks the release of "Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time" on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Earlier this week, we surprised JoJo by getting Crash himself to make a cameo on Sunset Blvd, and ya gotta see her reaction!!! Yeah, you can tell she's ready to play the first brand-new Crash game in more than 10 years.

Congressman Dwight Evans says President Trump was out of line with his jab at Philadelphia, and thinks that lashing out is gonna backfire on him come Election Day.

The U.S. Representative went to bat for his home district -- which includes West Philly -- when we got him in D.C. Wednesday. Evans blasted Trump for disrespecting the City of Brotherly Love during the debate by saying, "Bad things happen in Philadelphia."

Trump was specifically talking about an alleged poll watchers controversy when he made the comment, but Rep. Evans believes the dig goes deeper than that ... and shows POTUS doesn't value Ben Franklin's home turf.

The Congressman also claims Trump has zero support in Philadelphia as it is, and suggests the Prez might have sealed his fate in the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with the diss.

As for Philadelphians ... it seems they're embracing Trump's hate, even as his campaign threatens to sue the city over allegations poll watchers were banned.

President Trump refusing to condemn white supremacists and continuing to undermine confidence in the election has Rev. Al Sharpton concerned about division and voter intimidation.

Sharpton was on "TMZ Live" Thursday to address the President's ominous words -- "Stand back and stand by" -- for alt-right group the Proud Boys ... and his apparent encouragement of supporters to take to the streets if he's dissatisfied with the election.

According to Rev. Al, the message is clear -- Trump stands by white supremacy, and gave a hate group his stamp of approval Wednesday night.

Sharpton believes this could have dire consequences and deliver a blow to our democracy if voters are intimidated to go to the polls ... something he suggests is Trump's motive.

Americans are preparing in droves to get outta Dodge after the disaster that was the first presidential debate ... or so it seems based on the line to get a passport.

The passport office in Times Square drew a flock of customers, all lined up Wednesday morning less than 12 hours after the debate ... or as CNN put it, the "s**tshow."

The NYC crowd played like a response to the head-to-head war of words between President Trump and Joe Biden, because fleeing the country is one of those things ya hear people -- on both sides -- say when they're pissed about politics.

We're told the folks in line were waiting for appointments with the Dominican Republic Consulate.

After last night, virtually everyone's unhappy. As we reported ... some lowlights of the chaotic debate included Biden referring to the President as a "clown," and Trump refusing to denounce white supremacy.

There were plenty of other disturbing comments and verbal attacks, and it's all resonating with the public.

As many viewers and pundits have said ... to hell with the candidates, the American people lost last night.

Kylie Jenner is flexing her political influence in a very impressive way ... turning your standard IG thirst trap into nearly 50,000 potential new registered voters!

TMZ's learned Kylie's smoke show bikini pics -- posted Monday -- are drawing huge traffic for Vote.org. She used the caption of those sexy shots to direct her nearly 200 million Instagram followers to hit up the site, and so many obeyed ... we're told it saw a whopping 1500% boost from traffic driven via Instagram.

There are more astronomical stats -- Vote.org got over an 80% increase in total users of its voter registration and verification tool from the prior day. That all translates to more than 48,000 users going to the site through Kylie's IG post ... and ya gotta figure that number's still rising.

By contrast ... only 2,900 users came to the registration verification tool via Instagram on Sunday out of 174k total users. So, there's clearly a very real Kylie effect working here.

Remember ... only around 138 million Americans -- out of 328 million -- voted in 2016. Now, more than 1 million have already cast ballots for this year's election ... the highest rate of early voting in U.S. history. For example, around this time 4 years ago, less than 10,000 people had voted.

Ya can't say Kylie hasn't done her part to get people to the polls. Aside from the pics this week ... she also implored fans back in June to NOT get distracted, and show up to the polls.

President Trump won't denounce white supremacy and he just delivered an ominous message to the Proud Boys ... telling them to "stand by."

Trump made the jaw-dropping remark during the first presidential debate when moderator Chris Wallace and Democratic candidate Joe Biden asked him to denounce white supremacist groups.

POTUS first attacked ANTIFA when debating violent protests in places like Kenosha, WI and Portland, OR before saying to the Proud Boys, "Stand back and stand by."

It's a bizarre and ominous statement to say the least ... because "stand by" sounds a lot like Trump is telling the far-right group that if he loses the election to Biden, he'll get back to them.

Eric Trump took an anonymous gay person's support for his dad and tried to bootstrap that support to the entire LGBT community -- but some of their heaviest hitters are calling BS.

Officials from some of the biggest LGBT-friendly groups in the country are outraged by the Prez's son's appearance Tuesday on "Fox & Friends" -- when he responded to an NYT op-ed told from the POV of a lesbian woman ... who said she was a secret Trump supporter.

In his response, Eric seemingly flubbed ... making it seem like he's a member of the community. More importantly, he suggested gay people were down with MAGA ... but that's hardly the case ... so say these orgs.

Reps for GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign, PFLAG and the NTCE Action Fund tell TMZ there's a consensus -- folks in their community are mostly NOT Trump fans, nor do they consider him/his fam genuine allies in their fight for equality and representation.

The facts are clear says the LGBTQ honchos ... the Trump administration has actively worked against LGBT causes -- from blocking trans soldiers from serving to sanctioning discrimination and/or firings of gay workers and couples looking to foster.

Bottom line ... all of these orgs believe Eric is either exaggerating or more likely flat-out wrong in thinking the LGBT crowd's got his pop's back -- especially in this election.

President Trump's acting like a "clown" during the first Presidential debate ... at least according to his opponent, Joe Biden.

The debate went off the rails early as moderator Chris Wallace is finding near impossible to keep the candidates on track, and stop them from shouting over each other. It started with the very first question of the night.

Trump kept interrupting, and at one point, took a jab at Wallace ... saying he thought he was debating Biden not the moderator. The quip drew a facial expression from Biden.

During one heated exchange, Biden simply asked the audience, "Do you have any idea what this clown is doing?"

They sparred quite a bit at the outset, which was supposed to be focused on the Supreme Court, and Trump went after Biden by calling him a socialist when the topic turned to Obamacare.

Biden's calling Trump un-presidential and asking him, "Will you shut up, man?"

Donald Trump says he's the greatest, but Joe Biden thinks 45 is the "worst President" Americans have ever seen.

The first presidential debate is still super testy -- okay, out of control -- and Biden just ripped Trump where it hurts ... calling DT, "the worst President America has ever had." Ouch.

The candidates were sparring over Trump's tax returns when Biden pulled his punch ... and Biden delivered the blow when Trump tried pushing back on reports he paid only $750 in federal taxes.

Trump says he's paid millions in taxes, but didn't specify if they were federal, and also says he doesn't wanna pay taxes as a businessman. But, Chris Wallace persisted and asked squarely how much he paid in 2016 in FEDERAL TAXES ... and Trump said "millions."

Joe Biden is jumping all over President Trump's reported triple-digit tax payment ... by doing some quick easy math for American voters and taxpayers.

The Biden/Harris campaign created a tool called the Trump Tax Calculator, which is on Joe's site. It's very basic ... you enter the amount of income tax you paid in 2017 -- when the NYT says Trump paid just $750 -- and it'll tell you how much more you paid than he did.

To get you started on your outrage, they offer up an example -- noting the average American pays $11,165.39. That number minus 750 is ... any geniuses in the house???

Yeah, the average 3rd grader can do this math, but Biden/Harris ain't passing on the opportunity to stick it to Trump.

If you're as mad as they are about it when ya finish using the calculator ... you can join their mailing list.

The troll job on Trump comes shortly after the NYT claimed to have obtained several years worth of the President's tax information, and reports he paid the $750 in 2016 and again in 2017 ... his first 2 years in office. Prior to that, they say he paid zilch in income tax.

The Prez is brushing off the report as fake news, but Tuesday night is the first presidential debate -- so he'll have to address sooner than later.

Megyn Kelly says President Trump's bombing on coronavirus and racial issues, but she gives him a passing grade overall on policy ... and has a bold prediction about how he'll handle it, IF he loses the election.

The former Fox News and NBC anchor joined "TMZ Live" Monday to give the Prez a report card of sorts for his first 4 years in office, and though she says his behavior and rhetoric are atrocious ... she feels his job performance is satisfactory.

Megyn says Trump's policies overall have been a success, especially for Republicans, but she also thinks he's done some good for the left and gives some examples.

That being said, Kelly concedes POTUS leaves a lot to be desired when issues require nuance or a healing hand ... like the COVID-19 pandemic. However, she thinks the virus would be a tough challenge for any President.

As for Megyn's bold prediction ... we ask her if Trump -- the same guy who feuded with her for challenging him on his history of sexist and misogynistic comments -- would attend Joe Biden's inauguration if he loses the presidency.

Her answer's surprising, but she's pretty confident about it.

As you'll recall, Megyn eventually buried the hatchet with Trump and even went on to interview him on his way to the White House ... and it seems like they're still on good terms.