Former US President Donald Trump defended his dinner with controversial rapper Kanye West, saying it happened because he is “overly generous.”
Speaking to New York magazine in an interview published Friday and quoted by The Hill, Trump said that West has “always been very good” to him and he believed he wanted advice.
“And I do that for people, sometimes at my own risk, I guess. But I do that for people. I like helping people that have difficulties in life. And I think, you know, from that standpoint, I did the right thing,” he said.
“I believe I am overly generous, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. But sometimes it can make life a little bit more difficult,” added Trump.
Trump came under fire after he hosted West and white nationalist Nick Fuentes for dinner at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
The criticism came from Senate Republicans, as well as from Trump’s former Vice President, Mike Pence, who said that Trump should apologize for the dinner with Fuentes.
Trump stressed once again in Friday’s interview that he did not know Fuentes, and that West was the one who brought him to the meeting.
“He brought some people that I didn’t — Nick Fuentes — who I didn’t know at all. We sat down, we had a very quick meal. It wasn’t two hours, as somebody said. It was a very quick meal, it went very fast. It was pleasant,” he said. “There was nothing said of any great import. And that was the end of that. All of a sudden, the press made a fake story out of it.”