Former President Donald Trump has been roundly criticized for dining this week with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist leader and Holocaust denier.
Trump hosted the couple at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, the former president confirmed in a post to Truth Social. He downplayed the encounter, saying the rapper, now known as Ye, “showed up unexpectedly with three of his friends, whom I knew nothing about.”
“On Tuesday evening we had dinner with many members present on the back terrace. Dinner was fast and boring. They then left for the airport,” Trump posted.
According to Trump, Ye asked him for business advice and the two “got on well.” He said Ye “expressed no anti-Semitism, and I appreciated all the nice things he said about me on ‘Tucker Carlson’.
‘Why wouldn’t I agree to a meeting? I didn’t know Nick Fuentes either,” he added. Known for his anti-Semitism, Fuentes attended the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Ye’s net worth recently plunged by billions of dollars after Adidas cut ties with him over his “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous” abusive comments. He regularly posts anti-Semitic and racist comments and tweeted earlier this month that he planned to go “Death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE”.
The Justice Department has labeled Fuentes a “white supremacist.” According to the Anti-Defamation League, Fuentes has “jokingly” denied that the Holocaust ever happened, and has compared “Jews burned in concentration camps to biscuits in an oven”.
In a movie posted after the Mar-a-Lago rally, Ye said Trump is “really impressed with Nick Fuentes.” (He also said he asked Trump to run as his vice president in the 2024 race.)
Trump is now facing fierce criticism of the meeting. Without naming Trump, Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) executive director Matt Brooks told the Washington Post: “We strongly condemn the virulent anti-Semitism of Kanye West and Nick Fuentes and call on all political leaders to reject their hate speech and to refuse. to meet them.”
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, told the New York Times: “Nick Fuentes is one of the most prominent and unashamed anti-Semites in the country. … He is a vicious bigot and well-known Holocaust denier who has been condemned by leading figures of both political parties here, including the RJC” Greenblatt cited the idea that “any serious contender for higher office” is willing to meet Fuentes and “validate him through a meal and spending time is terrible.
Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey and former Republican presidential nominee, wrote about the meeting“This is just appalling, unacceptable behavior from anyone, but especially from a former president and current candidate.”
David Friedman, Trump’s former ambassador to Israel, tweeted, “To my friend Donald Trump, you are better than this. Even a social visit from an anti-Semite like Kanye West and human scum like Nick Fuentes is unacceptable.”
Max Miller, a former Trump aide who received support from Trump and is now a congressman-elect in Ohio, tweeted that Fuentes’ “hate brand has no place in our public discourse.”
One Trump adviser quoted in the Washington Post described Trump’s meeting with Ye and Fuentes as “terrible,” while another adviser called it “absolutely terrible.”
NBC News reported that a longtime adviser described the situation for the Trump campaign as a “terrible nightmare.” “When people watch [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis to run against Trump, here’s another reason why,” the adviser reportedly said.
