Donald Trump has renewed attention on his long history of turning a blind eye to bigotry after dining with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and rapper Kanye West just days into his third campaign for the White House.
Donald Trump has renewed attention on his long history of turning a blind eye to bigotry after dining with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and rapper Kanye West just days into his third campaign for the White House.
The ex-president had dinner on Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago club with West, now known as Ye, as well as Nick Fuentes, a far-right activist who has used his online platform to spew antisemitic and white nationalist rhetoric.
West, who says he too is running for president in 2024, has made his own antisemitic comments in recent weeks, leading to his suspension from social media platforms, his talent agency dropping him and companies like Adidas cutting ties with him.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said: “Bigotry, hate, and antisemitism have absolutely no place in America — including at Mar-a-Lago. Holocaust denial is repugnant and dangerous, and it must be forcefully condemned.”
Mr Trump, in a series of statements on Friday, said he had “never met and knew nothing about” Mr Fuentes before he arrived with West at his club, but the former president also did not acknowledge Mr Fuentes’ long history of racist and antisemitic remarks, or denounce either man’s defamatory statements.
The former president wrote of West on his social media platform: “We got along great, he expressed no anti-Semitism, & I appreciated all of the nice things he said about me on ‘Tucker Carlson.’ Why wouldn’t I agree to meet?”
Mr Trump has a long history of failing to unequivocally condemn hate speech. During his 2016 campaign, he waffled when asked to denounce the Ku Klux Klan after he was endorsed by the group’s former leader, saying in a televised interview that he did not “know anything about David Duke”.
