Haters visit Mar-a-Lago
Former President Donald Trump is renewing attention to his long history of turning a blind eye to bigotry after dining with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West days into his third campaign for the White House.
Trump had dinner on Wednesday at his Mar-a-Lago club with West, who is now known as Ye, as well as Nick Fuentes, a far-right activist who has used his online platform to spew anti-semitic and white nationalist rhetoric.
Ye, who says he too is running for president in 2024, has made his own series of anti-semitic 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. The sportswear manufacturer has also launched an investigation into his conduct.
In a statement from the 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.’’
Trump, in a series of statements on Saturday, said he had ‘‘never met and knew nothing about’’ Fuentes before he arrived with Ye at his club.
But Trump also did not acknowledge Fuentes’ long history of racist and anti-semitic remarks, nor did he denounce either man’s racist statements. Trump wrote of Ye on his social media platform that ‘‘we got along great, he expressed no antiSemitism, & I appreciated all of the nice things he said about me on ‘Tucker Carlson’.’’ He added: ‘‘Why wouldn’t I agree to meet?’’
The former president has a long history of failing to unequivocally condemn hate speech. During his 2016 campaign, Trump waffled when asked to denounce the KKK after he was endorsed by the group’s former leader, saying in a televised interview that he didn’t ‘‘know anything about David Duke’’.
In 2017, in the aftermath of the deadly white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump was widely criticised for saying there was ‘‘blame on both sides’’ for the violence. And his rallies frequently feature inflammatory rhetoric from figures like US Representative. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga, who spoke earlier this year at a far-right conference organised by Fuentes. The latest episode, coming one week after Trump launched his third run for the Republican nomination, also underscored how loosely controlled access to the former president is, particularly without a traditional campaign operation in place.