Trump dines with white supremacist

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday had dinner with Nick Fuentes, an outspoken antisemite and racist who is one of the country’s most prominent young white supremacists, at the private club in Florida, advisers conceded Friday.

Also at the dinner was performer Ye, who has changed his name from Kanye West and has also been condemned for making antisemitic statements. Ye traveled to meet with Trump at the club, Mar-a-Lago, and brought Fuentes along, the advisers said.

In recent years, Fuentes, 24, has developed a high profile on the far right and forged ties with such Republican lawmakers as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, largely through his leadership of an annual white supremacist event called the America First Political Action Conference.

A Holocaust denier and unabashed racist, Fuentes openly uses hateful language on his podcast, in recent weeks calling for the military to be sent into Black neighborhoods and demanding that Jews leave the country.

It is unclear how much Trump knew of Fuentes’ well-documented bigotry and extremism before their dinner. In a statement, Trump said: “Kanye West very much wanted to visit Mar-a-Lago. Our dinner meeting was intended to be Kanye and me only, but he arrived with a guest whom I had never met and knew nothing about.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, condemned Trump’s meeting with Fuentes, saying that the idea that Trump “or any serious contender for higher office would meet with him and validate him by sharing a meal and spending time is appalling. And really, you can’t say that you oppose hate and break bread with haters. It’s that simple.”