Karine Jean-Pierre
Karine Jean-PierrePool/ABACA via Reuters Connect

The White House on Monday criticized former US President Donald Trump for dining with white supremacist Nick Fuentes at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last week.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that it was important to condemn such behavior in "really absolute terms", reported Reuters.

"There is just no place for these types of vile forces in our society," she told reporters. "When you say things like this, when you do not speak out against these kinds of poisonous and dangerous kind of remarks ... that is also incredibly dangerous within itself."

Fuentes and rapper Kanye West, who has had his own issues with antisemitism recently, 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."

David Friedman, former US Ambassador to Israel during Trump’s tenure, 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.”

The White House deputy press secretary, Andrew Bates, had earlier condemned the meeting, saying, “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.”