Donald Trump ‘shied away from criticising Nick
Fuentes’
Advisers wanted ex-president to distance himself from
white supremacist with whom he dined but Trump feared alienating supporters –
insiders
Hugo Lowell
in Washington
@hugolowell
Mon 28 Nov
2022 02.00 EST
Donald
Trump repeatedly refused to disavow the outspoken antisemite and white
supremacist Nick Fuentes after they spoke over dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort,
rejecting the advice from advisers over fears he might alienate a section of
his base, two people familiar with the situation said.”
The former
US president was urged publicly and privately to denounce Fuentes in the
aftermath of the dinner, which included the performer Ye, previously known as
Kanye West, who has also recently been propagating antisemitic remarks.
But Trump
eschewed making outright disavowals of Fuentes, the people said, and none of
the statements from the campaign or on his Truth Social account included
criticism of Fuentes, despite efforts from advisers who reached Trump over the
Thanksgiving holiday.
Trump
ultimately made clear that he fundamentally did not want to criticise Fuentes –
a product of his dislike of confrontation and his anxiety that it might antagonise
a devoted part of his base – and became more entrenched in his obstinance the
more he was urged to do so.
Across
three statements on Friday, Trump initially sought only to play down the dinner
and made no mention of Fuentes or his views, before saying angrily in a post on
his Truth Social website that evening that Ye “expressed no antisemitism” and
“I didn’t know Nick Fuentes”.
The line
about not knowing Fuentes was the closest Trump came to acknowledging the
offensive nature of the dinner, under pressure from advisers who warned him
that being associated with a racist and Holocaust denier could further damage
his personal brand as well as his recently launched 2024 presidential campaign.
But even
with his ignorance of Fuentes taken at face value, the statements signal Trump
will give extraordinary deference to the most fringe elements of his base –
even if it means potentially losing support from more moderate Republicans who
have not typically cared for his indulgence of extremism.
Trump has had
a long history of delaying or muting criticism of white supremacy, drawing
moral equivalency in 2017 between neo-Nazis and counter protesters at the
deadly unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia, and refusing to denounce the
far-right Proud Boys group at a 2020 presidential debate.
The halting
response to Fuentes most closely mirrored his inability to condemn white
supremacist groups after Charlottesville, the people said, when Trump faced
intense criticism for not naming the rightwing groups in the bloodshed that
ended with the death of a young woman.
When
reached for comment, the Trump 2024 campaign said the former president had a
record of combating antisemitism, including the appointment of a special envoy
to combat antisemitism, and strengthening ties to Israel by recognising Israeli
sovereignty in the Golan Heights.
The
circumstances of the dinner at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, though, have been a new
source of consternation for aides, who privately concede that Ye should never
have been allowed to meet with Trump in the first place given his own recent
antisemitic history.
Trump had
intended to meet with Ye one-on-one for some time, according to a person
briefed on the matter, though it was postponed around the time that Ye tweeted
offensive tropes against Jews – only for it to be inexplicably rescheduled for
late November.
The former
president ended up meeting with Fuentes, who was at the unrest in
Charlottesville, after he came along with Ye and a former Trump campaign aide
Karen Giorno. There was only a skeleton staff from Trump’s “45 Office” at the
property ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
During the
dinner, the person said, Fuentes told Trump he was among the former president’s
supporters, but that he had been unimpressed with the 2024 campaign launch
speech because it appeared stilted instead of appearing “authentic” with his
ad-libs and off-the-cuff remarks.
Trump, who
had told Fuentes that his advisers preferred him to read speeches as scripted,
turned to Ye at one point and said: “He gets me.”
Fuentes
also told Trump that he thought the former president would crush other 2024
candidates in a primary, including the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, the
person said – only for Fuentes to appear to endorse DeSantis on his livestream,
saying the future of the country “isn’t Donald Trump”.
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