Move over, Vermin Supreme. There’s another contender for America’s wackiest presidential candidate, and he’s likely to gain the support of every Bitcoin hodler above eighteen. John McAfee—the drug-cooking, crypto-shilling, probably-own-dick-munching antivirus tycoon who spent half a decade living like a Bond villain in Central America, has formally announced his candidacy for the White House. On Sunday, the cryptocurrency guru issued his first formal campaign tweet, announcing that he would run for President in 2020.
“If asked again by the Libertarian party, I will run with them,” wrote the man who wants to have his finger on the nuclear trigger. “If not, I will create my own party. I believe this will best serve the crypto community by providing the ultimate campaign platform against us.”
In a later epistle, the candidate explained to the faithful that he was aware of the quixotic nature of his campaign.
Don't think that I have a chance of winning. I do not. But what truly changes America is not the president, but the process of creating one. If my following is sufficient I get to stand the world's largest stage and talk to the everyone, as I did last time, to tell the truth. — John McAfee (@officialmcafee) June 4, 2018
McAfee is no stranger to presidential politics, having first run for the office in 2016. After first announcing his candidacy with the newly formed “Cyber Party” (which is not as dirty as it sounds) the viral tycoon joined the race for the Libertarian nomination instead. He polled well among Libertarian primary voters, and came in second place behind former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson.
After working as a programmer for NASA and Lockheed, McAfee struck gold during the first internet boom, when he introduced the antivirus program that still bears his name. He eventually sold the software to Intel, along with his name, before embarking on a spree of sometimes-reckless technology investments. After some bad luck in the ‘90s and 2000’s—with some Trumpian echoes—the $100 million dollar McAfee fortune had shrunk to about $4 million, according to the New York Times.
By 2008, his fortune seriously in decline, McAfee retired to Belize. By now his reputation had moved from “eccentric tycoon” to “expat weirdo” and rumors of his lifestyle became legendary—from his predilections for butt drugs and sex yoga, to guns and prostitutes. Eventually McAfee fell afoul of local police on suspicion of murder, or—by his own telling—was framed by corrupt officials, leading to a government raid on his compound and a flight to Guatemala.
Somewhere in there, McAfee struck gold again, this time in Bitcoin. McAfee has since become a beloved, but crazy, uncle to Twitter’s crypto community, where he regularly shills promising-looking altcoins in exchange for a hefty share of the tokens. A coin bearing his name went nowhere, although we enjoyed reviewing it.
It’s not quite clear what we can expect from ‘McAfee 2020’, although given his history, it should at least be entertaining.
You might be wondering why Americans would want to vote for a Twitter-addicted, self-adoring misogynist who can’t finish a sentence and seems to have had dubious judgement in his choice of female companionship over the years, but this article is actually about John McAfee.
He might not be the most coherent person to occupy the White House, or the most sane, but he would certainly be easier to explain than the current resident of the Oval Office.
Disclaimer: The author is invested in Bitcoin, which is mentioned in this article. Opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of all Crypto Briefing staff.
Comments