Dhe White House has condemned former President Donald Trump for meeting at his Florida home with a well-known white supremacist and rapper Kanye West, who has been heavily criticized for anti-Semitic remarks. “Intolerance, hatred and anti-Semitism have absolutely no place in America, including Mar-a-Lago,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrews Bates told CNN on Saturday. Holocaust denial is “disgusting and dangerous” and must be “resolutely condemned”.
Trump confirmed he had dinner with West in Mar-a-Lago, Florida on Tuesday night. He said the latter brought friends, including Nick Fuentes, an outspoken anti-Semite and racist. “I didn’t know Nick Fuentes,” Trump wrote Friday night on his online channel Truth Social.
“Anti-Semites deserve no pardon”
Fuentes is a Holocaust denier whose YouTube channel was permanently banned in early 2020 for violating the platform’s hate speech policies. West had recently caused outrage with controversial actions and anti-Semitic statements.
Trump recently announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. His meeting with Fuentes has now been criticized as “unacceptable” by former comrades-in-arms. “Anti-Semites deserve no quarters among US leaders, whether left or right,” wrote David Friedman, Trump’s former ambassador to Israel, on Twitter. A visit like that of West and Fuentes was “unacceptable”.
