On Saturday, the White House condemned a meeting that brought together former President Donald Trump, white supremacist and rapper Kanye West at his Florida home, sparking a wave of condemnation with statements deemed anti-Semitic.
On Friday, Trump confirmed he had dinner with the rapper at his Florida residence, noting that the latter had brought along friends, including Nick Fuentes, known for his racist and anti-Semitic views. “I didn’t know anything about Nick Fuentes,” he said in a comment posted to his Truth Social account Friday night.
White House Press Secretary Andrew Bates condemned the meeting between Trump and Fuentes. “Phanism, hatred and anti-Semitism have no place in America, including Mar-a-Lago,” Bates told CNN. “Holocaust denial is disgusting and dangerous and must be strongly condemned.”
Commenting on the question about Trump’s dinner, US President Joe Biden, who spends the weekend in Nantucket, simply said: “You don’t want to hear my opinion.”
Trump: “I don’t know him”
Fuentes is a Holocaust denier and his YouTube channel was taken down in early 2020 for violating the platform’s anti-hate speech policy.
Trump announced in mid-November that he intended to run for president in 2024, but his reception as a white nationalist drew condemnation from some former administration officials.
Former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman condemned the meeting. “Even a social visit from an anti-Semite like Kanye West, a human bastard like Nick Fuentes, is unacceptable,” he wrote in one of his tweets. “Anti-Semites do not deserve a place among American right-wing or left-wing leaders,” he added.
“Trump seemed to be taken”
Axios quoted an informed source as saying that Trump “seemed enamored” with Fuentes, although he appeared to know nothing of his history.
As for West, who officially changed his name to Yi, several brands have stopped working with him, including the German sports equipment manufacturer Adidas and the American ready-to-wear manufacturer Gap due to statements that were considered anti-Semitic. and his association with extremists.
Rapper Kanye West hinted at his intention to run in the 2024 US presidential election by confirming that he had proposed to former President Donald Trump to be his running mate, and the singer posted a series of video clips on Twitter with the slogan “E24”. a conversation he had with Trump, who announced his candidacy for the 2024 election, and Yi said, “I asked him to be vice president,” emphasizing that Trump “would yell” at him.
For his part, Trump clarified that the two had a “political conversation,” adding, “I told him that he should not run for president and that all of his constituents should vote for Trump.”
