The White House has condemned former US President Donald Trump for meeting at his Florida estate with renowned white supremacist Nick Fuentes and with rapper Kanye West, who was recently embroiled in antisemitic controversy.
“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,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement to CNN.
According to media reports, Fuentes and West were seen dining with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Tuesday, when West said he had asked the former president to be his vice presidential running mate in 2024.
While sources confirmed to Axios that Fuentes did attend the dinner with Trump and West, Trump told the news outlet that he had never met Fuentes before dining with him.
"Kanye West very much wanted to visit Mar-a-Lago," Trump said in a statement. "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."
President Joe Biden ducked a question about Trump's dinner when asked by reporters about in Nantucket. "You don't wanna hear what I think," he said.
David Friedman, former US Ambassador to Israel during Trump’s tenure, also condemned Trump’s association with West and Fuentes.
“To my friend Donald Trump, you are better than this. Even a social visit from an antisemite like Kanye West and human scum like Nick Fuentes is unacceptable. I urge you to throw those bums out, disavow them and relegate them to the dustbin of history where they belong,” Friedman wrote in a pair of tweets. “Antisemites deserve no quarter among American leaders, right or left.”