Donald Trump criticised over dinner with white nationalist and Kanye West

Donald Trump has renewed consideration on his lengthy historical past of turning a blind eye to bigotry after eating with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and rapper Kanye West simply days into his third marketing campaign for the White Home.

he ex-president had dinner on Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago membership with West, now generally known as Ye, in addition to Nick Fuentes, a far-right activist who has used his on-line platform to spew antisemitic and white nationalist rhetoric.

West, who says he too is operating for president in 2024, has made his personal antisemitic feedback in current weeks, resulting in his suspension from social media platforms, his expertise company dropping him and firms like Adidas reducing ties with him.

White Home spokesman Andrew Bates stated: “Bigotry, hate, and antisemitism have completely no place in America — together with at Mar-a-Lago. Holocaust denial is repugnant and harmful, and it have to be forcefully condemned.”

Mr Trump, in a sequence of statements on Friday, stated he had “by no means met and knew nothing about” Mr Fuentes earlier than he arrived with West at his membership, however the former president additionally didn’t acknowledge Mr Fuentes’ lengthy historical past of racist and antisemitic remarks, or denounce both man’s defamatory statements.

The previous president wrote of West on his social media platform: “We bought alongside nice, he expressed no anti-Semitism, & I appreciated the entire good issues he stated about me on ‘Tucker Carlson.’ Why wouldn’t I agree to satisfy?”

Mr Trump has a protracted historical past of failing to unequivocally condemn hate speech. Throughout his 2016 marketing campaign, he waffled when requested to denounce the Ku Klux Klan after he was endorsed by the group’s former chief, saying in a televised interview that he didn’t “know something about David Duke”.

In 2017, after lethal white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, Mr Trump was broadly criticised for saying there was “blame on either side” for the violence.

The newest episode, coming per week after Mr Trump launched his third run for the Republican nomination, additionally underscored how loosely managed entry to the previous president remained, notably and not using a conventional marketing campaign operation in place.

West first shared particulars of the dinner in a video he posted to his Twitter account on Thursday. He stated he had travelled to Florida to ask Mr Trump to be his 2024 operating mate, and that the assembly had develop into heated, with Mr Trump “perturbed” by his request and West angered by his criticism of his estranged spouse, Kim Kardashian.

“When Trump began principally screaming at me on the desk telling me I used to be gonna lose. I imply, has that ever labored for anybody in historical past, telling Ye that I’m going to lose?” West requested within the video. “You’re speaking to Ye!”

West additionally stated Mr Trump was “actually impressed with Nick Fuentes”, who he described as “really a loyalist”, and stated he had requested Mr Trump: “Why while you had the possibility did you not free the January Sixth-ers?” referring to the defendants alleged to have participated within the lethal revolt on the US Capitol on January 6 2021.

Mr Trump launched a sequence of statements on Friday attempting to elucidate the circumstances of the assembly.

“Kanye West very a lot wished to go to Mar-a-Lago. Our dinner assembly was meant to be Kanye and me solely, however he arrived with a visitor whom I had by no means met and knew nothing about,” he stated in his first assertion launched by his marketing campaign.

Not lengthy after, he took to his social media community to say that West and “three of his mates, whom I knew nothing about”, had “unexpectedly confirmed up” at his membership.

“We had dinner on Tuesday night with many members current on the again patio. The dinner was fast and uneventful. They then left for the airport,” he wrote.

Hours later he once more posted, saying he had instructed West that he “ought to undoubtedly not run for President”, and that “any voters you might have ought to vote for TRUMP”.

“Anyway, we bought alongside nice, he expressed no anti-Semitism, & I appreciated the entire good issues he stated about me on ‘Tucker Carlson,’” he added. “Why wouldn’t I agree to satisfy? Additionally, I didn’t know Nick Fuentes.”

Mr Fuentes stated after the journey that, whereas he couldn’t rule out that Mr Trump had heard of him, “I don’t suppose he knew that I used to be me on the dinner”.

“I didn’t imply for my statements and my entire background to kind of develop into a public relations drawback for the president,” he added on his present.

The assembly drew quick criticism from Trump critics in addition to some supporters, together with David Friedman, who served because the ex-president’s ambassador to Israel.

“To my buddy Donald Trump, you’re higher than this. Even a social go to from an antisemite like Kanye West and human scum like Nick Fuentes is unacceptable,” Friedman wrote in a tweet.

“I urge you to throw these bums out, disavow them and relegate them to the dustbin of historical past the place they belong.”

On Saturday, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, a possible 2024 rival, additionally denounced antisemitism, with out immediately referencing the dinner or the president below whom he served.

“Anti-Semitism is a most cancers,” he wrote, including: “We stand with the Jewish folks within the combat in opposition to the world’s oldest bigotry.”

President Joe Biden, requested in regards to the Trump dinner assembly, replied: “You don’t need to hear what I feel.”