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After a dinner with Holocaust-denying white nationalist and rapper Kanye West, Donald Trump, days after his third run for the White House, renewed focus on his long history of turning a blind eye to bigotry.
The former president, who had dinner with West, now known as Ye, and far-right activist Nick Fuentes at his Mar-a-Lago club on Tuesday, has used his online platform to make anti-Semitic and white nationalist rhetoric.
West, who has said he, too, will run for president in 2024, has made his own anti-Semitic comments in recent weeks that have led to him being suspended from social media platforms, fired by his talent agency and sacked by companies such as Adidas. Cut off contact.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said: “Braniosity, hatred and anti-Semitism have absolutely no place in America – including at Mar-a-Lago. Holocaust denial is disgusting and dangerous and must be strongly condemned.”
In a series of statements on Friday, Mr Trump said he “never met and knew nothing about Mr Fuentes” before he arrived at his club with West, but the ex Nor has the president acknowledged Mr. Fuentes’ long history of racist and anti-Semitic remarks, or denounced defamatory remarks by any of them.
The former president had this to say about West on his social media platform: “We got along great, he didn’t show anti-Semitism, and I appreciated all the nice things he said to me on ‘Tucker Carlson’ .” Why do I disagree with meeting? “
Trump has long failed to explicitly condemn hate speech. During his 2016 campaign, when he was asked to denounce the Klan after he received the endorsement of former Klan leaders, he was vague, saying in a television interview that he had “a disdain for David Duke.” Know nothing”.
In 2017, after deadly white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, Mr Trump was widely criticized for saying the violence was “blame on both sides”.
The latest episode, which comes a week after Trump is running for the Republican presidential nomination for the third time, also underscores how loosely ties to the former president remain, especially without a traditional campaign run.
Details of the dinner were first shared by West in a video posted to his Twitter account on Thursday. He said he had traveled to Florida to ask Mr Trump to be his 2024 running mate, and the meeting turned heated, with Mr Trump “uneasy” about his request and West to his estranged wife, Kim Kardashian. Kardashian’s criticism angered West.
“When Trump started yelling at me at the dinner table, telling me I was going to lose. I mean, does that work for anyone in history, telling Yeh I’m going to lose?” West asked in the video. “You’re talking to Ye!”
West also said Mr Trump was “very impressed” by Nick Fuentes, whom he called “a de facto loyalist” and said he had asked Mr Trump: “Why? Do you have a chance not to release the January 6th?” referring to the defendants allegedly involved in the deadly January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Mr. Trump issued a series of statements on Friday trying to explain the circumstances of the meeting.
“Kanye West wanted so badly to visit Mar-a-Lago. Our dinner was supposed to be just Kanye and me, but he brought a guest I’ve never met and know nothing about,” he said in a statement released by his campaign. said in a statement.
Shortly afterward, he said on his social media network that West had “appeared unexpectedly” at his club with “three of his friends whom I knew nothing about”.
“We had dinner Tuesday night with many members in the backyard. Dinner was quick and peaceful. Then they headed off to the airport,” he wrote.
Hours later, he posted again that he had told West he “absolutely should not be running for president” and that “any voter you might have should vote for Trump.”
“Anyway, we got along great, he didn’t express anti-Semitism, and I appreciate all the nice things he said to me on ‘Tucker Carlson,'” he added. “Why do I disagree with meeting? Plus, I don’t know Nick Fuentes.”
Mr. Fuentes said after the trip that while he could not rule out that Mr. Trump had heard of him, “I don’t think he knew it was me at the dinner.”
“I’m not trying to make my statement and my whole background a public relations issue for the president,” he added on his show.
The meeting drew immediate criticism from Trump critics and some supporters, including David Friedman, the former president’s ambassador to Israel.
“To my friend Donald Trump, you’re better than this. Even a social visit from an anti-Semite like Kanye West and a scum like Nick Fuentes is unacceptable,” Friedman said in wrote in the tweet.
“I urge you to throw those bums out, deny them and relegate them to the dustbin of history where they belong.”
On Saturday, a potential 2024 rival, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, also denounced anti-Semitism, but made no direct reference to the dinner or the president he served.
“Anti-Semitism is a cancer,” he wrote, adding: “We stand with the Jewish people in the fight against the world’s oldest prejudice.”
Asked about the Trump dinner, President Biden replied: “You don’t want to hear what I think.”
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