Dinner with hip-hop star and nationalist poisoned Trump’s life

Former President Donald Trump is again accused of turning a blind eye to bigotry after dinner with white nationalist Holocaust denier and rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, just days after the billionaire announced his third campaign for White house.

Trump dined at his Mar-a-Lago club on Tuesday with Kanye West, now known as Ye, and far-right activist Nick Fuentes, who used his online platform to spread anti-Semitic and white nationalist rhetoric, the Associated Press reported. .

Rapper Ye, who says he too is set to run for US President in 2024, has made his own series of anti-Semitic comments in recent weeks, leading to him being suspended from social media platforms, kicked out of a talent agency and cut ties with him. companies like Adidas. The sportswear manufacturer also launched an investigation into the behavior of the hip-hop artist.

In a White House statement, press secretary Andrew Bates said: “Phantomism, hatred and anti-Semitism have absolutely no place in America, including in Mar-A-Lago. Holocaust denial is disgusting and dangerous and must be strongly condemned.”

Trump, in a series of statements on Friday, said he “never met or knew anything” about Fuentes before arriving with Ye at his club. But Trump also did not acknowledge Fuentes’ long history of racist and anti-Semitic remarks, nor did he denounce any individual’s slanderous statements.

Trump wrote about Ye on his social media that “we got along great, he didn’t show any anti-Semitism and I appreciate all the good things he said about me on Tucker Carlson’s program.” He added: “Why not.” Am I willing to meet?”

The former president has long been unable to unequivocally condemn hate speech, the Associated Press notes. During his 2016 campaign, Trump hesitated when asked to denounce the Ku Klux Klan after being backed by the former leader of the far-right group, saying in a TV interview that he “knew nothing about David Duke.” In 2017, following deadly white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump was widely criticized for saying that “both sides are to blame” for the violence. And, as the AP points out, his rallies are often accompanied by inflammatory rhetoric from figures like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (D-GA), who spoke earlier this year at a far-right conference hosted by Fuentes.

The latest episode, just a week after Trump launched his third run in the 2024 Republican presidential election, also highlighted how loosely controlled access to the former president remained, especially without a traditional campaign.

Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club came under scrutiny amid revelations that Trump kept hundreds of classified documents there, prompting a federal investigation. But the club — and the people it gave access to Trump — has long horrified former White House aides.

Mar-a-Lago is not only Trump’s residence, but also a private club and event space. Club members and their guests dine with him and often interact with him; members of the public can book weddings, fundraisers, and other events, and Trump often drops by.

Kanye West, who changed his name to Ye, first shared the details of the dinner in a video he posted to his Twitter account on Thursday. The rapper said he traveled to Florida to ask Trump to be his running mate in 2024, and that the meeting got heated, with Trump “outraged” by his request and Ye outraged by Trump’s criticism of his ex-wife Kim Kardashian.

“When Trump literally started yelling at me at the table saying I was going to lose. I mean, has it ever worked in history to tell Ye that I will lose? asked the rapper in the video. “You are talking to Ye!”

The rapper also said that Trump was “really impressed with Nick Fuentes”, whom he called “actually a loyalist”, and said he asked Trump, “why, when you had the chance, didn’t you release the supporters on January 6?” (referring to the defendants accused of participating in the bloody uprising at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021).

On Friday, Trump released a series of statements trying to explain the circumstances of the meeting.

“Kanye West really wanted to visit Mar-a-Lago. Our dinner meeting was supposed to be just Kanye and me, but he arrived with a guest I had never met and knew nothing about,” Trump said in his first statement released by his campaign.

Shortly thereafter, Trump posted on his social media that Ye and “three of his friends I didn’t know anything about” “showed up” at his club.

“We had dinner on a Tuesday night and many of the members were in the backyard. Dinner passed quickly and without incident. Then they left for the airport,” he wrote.

Hours later, Trump posted again saying he told Ye that he “definitely shouldn’t run for president” and that “any voters you might have should vote for TRUMP.”

“In any case, we got on very well, he did not show anti-Semitism, and I appreciated all the good things he said about me on Tucker Carlson,” he added. Why don’t I agree to meet? Besides, I didn’t know Nick Fuentes.”

Fuentes, meanwhile, said after the trip that while he couldn’t rule out Trump hearing about him, “I don’t think he knew I was at the dinner.”

“I didn’t want my statements and my entire biography to become a public relations problem for the president,” he added on his show.

The meeting drew immediate criticism from Trump’s critics as well as some supporters, including David Friedman, who was the Trump administration’s U.S. ambassador to Israel.

“To my friend Donald Trump: You are better than this. Even a social visit from an anti-Semite like Kanye West and a human scumbag like Nick Fuentes is unacceptable,” Friedman tweeted. “I urge you to throw out these bums, disavow them and send them to the dustbin of history, where they belong.”

On Saturday, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump’s potential rival in 2024, also denounced anti-Semitism without directly mentioning the dinner or the president he served under. “Anti-Semitism is a cancer,” Pompeo tweeted, adding, “We support the Jewish people in the fight against the oldest bigotry in the world.”

JR Biden, asked about Trump’s dinner while on vacation in Nantucket, Massachusetts, replied, “You don’t want to hear what I think.”