The White House on Saturday took aim at former President Trump for dining with white nationalist Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago this week, saying that hate has “no place in America.”
“Bigotry, hate, and antisemitism have absolutely no place in America — including at Mar-a-Lago,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.
“Holocaust denial is repugnant and dangerous, and it must be forcefully condemned,” Bates said.
The White House was responding after it emerged that Trump had hosted Ye, formerly known as Kane West, at his private club on Tuesday, and that Fuentes — a political commentator who has a history of racist comments and denying the Holocaust — was also in attendance.
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Trump’s hosting of Fuentes drew swift backlash across the political spectrum and led Trump to issue a statement distancing himself from the commentator. It comes just weeks after Trump announced a 2024 presidential bid. Ye has also announced his own 2024 bid.
Trump, in statements on TRUTH Social, said he didn’t know who Fuentes was and that the purpose of the dinner was to meet with Ye — who has also faced criticism for antisemitic remarks — about business and politics.
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“This past week, Kayye West called me to have dinner at Mar-a-Lago,” he said in his first statement. “Shortly thereafter, he unexpectedly showed up with three of his friends, whom I knew nothing about. We had dinner on Tuesday evening with many members present on the back patio. The dinner was quick and uneventful. They then left for the airport.”
“Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, was asking me for advice concerning some of his difficulties, in particular having to do with his business,” Trump said in his second statement. “We also discussed, to a lesser extent, politics, where I told him he should definitely not run for President, ‘any voters you may have should vote for TRUMP.’”
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“Anyway, we got along great, he expressed no anti-Semitism, & I appreciated all of the nice things he said about me on ‘Tucker Carlson.’ Why wouldn’t I agree to meet? Also, I didn’t know Nick Fuentes,” he said.
Ye, meanwhile, released a video saying that Trump had been “really impressed” with Fuentes, whom he described as a “loyalist,” and that the artist caught Trump off guard by asking him to be his vice president.
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“I think the thing Trump was most perturbed about [was] me asking him to be my vice president,” Ye said in the video. “I think that was lower on the list of things that caught him off guard.”
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
