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Former President Donald Trump is renewing consideration to his lengthy historical past of turning a blind eye to bigotry after eating with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and the rapper previously generally known as Kanye West simply days into his third marketing campaign for the White Home.
Trump had dinner Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago membership with West, who’s 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.
Ye, who says he, too, is working for president in 2024, has made his personal collection of antisemitic feedback in latest weeks, resulting in his suspension from social media platforms, his expertise company dropping him and firms like Adidas slicing ties with him. The sportswear producer has additionally launched an investigation into his conduct.
In an announcement from the 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 should be forcefully condemned.”
Trump, in a collection of statements Friday, stated he had “by no means met and knew nothing about” Fuentes earlier than he arrived with Ye at his membership. However Trump additionally didn’t acknowledge Fuentes’ lengthy historical past of racist and antisemitic remarks, nor did he denounce both man’s defamatory statements.
Trump wrote of Ye on his social media platform that “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 fulfill?”
The previous president has a protracted historical past of failing to unequivocally condemn hate speech. Throughout his 2016 marketing campaign, Trump waffled when requested to denounce the KKK after he was endorsed by the group’s former chief, saying in a televised interview that he did not “know something about David Duke.” In 2017, within the aftermath of the lethal white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump was extensively criticized for saying there was “blame on each side” for the violence. And his rallies often function inflammatory rhetoric from figures like U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who spoke earlier this yr at a far-right convention organized by Fuentes.
The most recent episode, coming only one week after Trump launched his third run for the Republican nomination, additionally underscored how loosely managed entry to the previous president remained, significantly and not using a conventional marketing campaign operation in place.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago membership got here beneath intense scrutiny amid revelations that Trump was storing a whole bunch of paperwork with categorized markings there — sparking a federal investigation. However the membership — and the folks it gave entry to Trump — had lengthy been a supply of consternation amongst former White Home aides.
Mar-a-Lago will not be solely Trump’s dwelling, but additionally a non-public membership and occasion house. Paid members and their friends dine alongside him and infrequently mingle with him; members of the general public can ebook weddings, fundraisers and different occasions, and Trump usually drops by.
Ye first shared particulars of the dinner in a video he posted to his Twitter account Thursday. Ye stated he had traveled to Florida to ask Trump to be his 2024 working mate, and that the assembly had grown heated, with Trump “perturbed” by his request and Ye angered by Trump’s criticism of his estranged spouse, Kim Kardashian.
“When Trump began mainly 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?” Ye requested within the video. “You’re speaking to Ye!”
Ye additionally stated Trump was “actually impressed with Nick Fuentes,” whom he described as “really a loyalist” and stated he’d requested Trump, “Why whenever you had the prospect did you not free the January Sixth-ers?” referring to the defendants who have been alleged to have participated within the lethal riot on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump launched a collection of statements Friday attempting to clarify 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,” Trump stated in his first assertion launched by his marketing campaign.
Not lengthy after, Trump took to his social media community to say that Ye and “three of his pals, 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 Ye that he “ought to positively not run for President,” and that “any voters you will 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 fulfill? Additionally, I didn’t know Nick Fuentes.”
Fuentes, in the meantime, stated after the journey that, whereas he could not rule out that Trump had heard of him, “I do not suppose he knew that I used to be me on the dinner.”
“I did not imply for my statements and my entire background to kind of turn 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 as Trump’s ambassador to Israel.
“To my pal Donald Trump, you might be 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 beneath whom he served.
“Anti-Semitism is a most cancers,” Pompeo wrote, including: “We stand with the Jewish folks within the combat in opposition to the world’s oldest bigotry.”
Biden, requested concerning the Trump dinner assembly whereas vacationing in Nantucket, Massachusetts, replied, “You don’t need to hear what I feel.”
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