Jewish allies turn on Trump for hosting Holocaust denier

Donald Trump has blamed Kanye West for bringing Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist banned from several social media platforms for hate speech, to their dinner last week.

Donald Trump, pictured with Kanye West in 2016, has blamed the singer for AFP)

Donald Trump has been criticised by Jewish former members of his administration for meeting with the antisemitic singer Kanye West and a far-right Holocaust denier at his Mar-a-Lago home.

Mr Trump has blamed West, now known as Ye, for bringing Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist banned from several social media platforms for hate speech, to their dinner last week. West, who has lost about $US2bn ($3bn) in sponsorship and contracts after making anti-Jewish remarks, said Mr Trump was “really impressed by Nick Fuentes”, as Mr Trump maintained that he did not know who he was.

The fallout from the dinner has cast a shadow over Mr Trump’s launch of his 2024 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

David Friedman, who served as ambassador to Israel during the Trump administration, tweeted: “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.” Mr Friedman, an Orthodox Jewish lawyer, added: “I urge you to throw those bums out, disavow them and relegate them to the dustbin of history where they belong.”

Len Khodorkovsky, a former deputy assistant secretary of state in the Trump administration, who is Jewish and descended from Holocaust survivors, told CNN: “[Fuentes] is an antisemite, he’s repulsive, his views are disgusting, and no one of any substance should give him any forum. It’s frankly beneath President Trump to meet him.” He added: “I can tell an antisemite when I hear one. And I tell you with confidence that President Trump is not an antisemite.”

The news website Axios reported that Mr Trump, 76, said of Mr Fuentes, 24: “I really like this guy. He gets me.”

Nick Fuentes is a notorious white supremacist who has been banned from several social media platforms for hate speech. Picture: AFP

Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said: “We strongly condemn the virulent antisemitism of Kanye West and Nick Fuentes and call on all political leaders to reject their messages of hate and refuse to meet with them.”

Mr Trump has been seeking to control the fallout from the dinner by blaming West. “He shows up with 3 people, two of which I didn’t know, the other a political person who I haven’t seen in years. I told him don’t run for office, a total waste of time, can’t win. Fake News went CRAZY!,” Mr Trump tweeted.

West, 45, is the second leading figure after Mr Trump to launch a 2024 presidential run, apparently with Mr Fuentes as adviser. West said that at the dinner he asked Mr Trump to be his running-mate. West ran in 2020, getting only 70,000 votes nationwide.

The incident has been seized on by potential Republican rivals for the presidential nomination. Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, tweeted: “This is just awful, unacceptable conduct.”

– The Times