Donald Trump has associated himself with plenty of unsavory figures over his lifetime, but he might have finally found someone too horrifying even for his die hards. The former president had Thanksgiving dinner with Kanye West and another guest: Nick Fuentes. Both Fuentes and Ye have said awful thinks about Jewish people. But Fuentes goes further: He’s a Holocaust denier, a white supremacist, a sexist who thinks women shouldn’t be able to vote, and a self-described incel who once said “dating women is gay.”
Why would a presidential candidate dine with someone like that? Trump tried to explain away his dinner with a bigot, using a familiar excuse: He claimed he “didn’t know Nick Fuentes.” He thought it was only supposed be him and Ye, he said, and had no idea he was bringing a guest, much less one who’s frequently said disparaging things about Black voters. For what it’s worth, Trump said that Fuentes “expressed no anti-Semitism” during their meal, so that’s nice.
Perhaps it’s true, and Trump — who bragged that the anti-Semite racist said “nice things” about him and was, as Ye put it, “really impressed” with him — simply thought he was some young fanboy. Whatever the case, people weren’t exactly buying his claim that a former commander-in-chief who still gets Secret Service detail would simply let some sketchy rando break bread with him.
Remarkable how Mar-a-Lago is supposedly so secure that there’s no issue with Trump storing classified docs — but so easy to access that Kanye West can walk in for dinner with Nick Fuentes
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) November 25, 2022
Nick Fuentes is an unabashed antisemitic Holocaust denier. Donald Trump invited him over for dinner. Enough said.
— Rob Reiner (@robreiner) November 26, 2022
“also I didn’t know Nick Fuentes” lol pic.twitter.com/C71pomalEp
— ｋ (@lawfulspice) November 25, 2022
Donald Trump: “Mar-a-Lago is a very secure place for classified documents!”
Also Donald Trump: “Nick Fuentes walked into Mar-a-Lago without my knowledge, wandered around the joint, even sat down and had dinner with me, and I had absolutely no idea who is!”
— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) November 26, 2022
Besides, Trump’s line — that he didn’t know about this horrible bigot with whom he’s linked — sounded awfully familiar.
Trump’s explanation for having dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes is the same explanation he used when he refused to condemn white supremacist David Duke pic.twitter.com/eSJmVGchU9
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) November 26, 2022
Remember when Trump pretended he had never heard of KKK Grand Wizard David Duke back in 2016? It was an absurd lie. And he’s doing the same thing with Nick Fuentes now.
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) November 25, 2022
Even it’s true and Trump had no clue who Fuentes was, he may still have caught the time he attended the same white nationalist event as Marjorie Taylor Greene, who also claimed — also not very convincingly — that she had no clue who he was.
Trump’s excuse for having dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes is the exact same as Marjorie Taylor Greene’s excuse for speaking at Fuentes’ white supremacist convention pic.twitter.com/kc7JmDgcqp
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) November 25, 2022
Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke at Nick Fuentes’s white supremacist conference but claimed she didn’t know who he was
Trump hosted Feuntes for Thanksgiving dinner at his home but claimed he didn’t know who he was
Two different bigots. Same pathological lying
— Lindy Li (@lindyli) November 26, 2022
Then again, Ye — who recently torched his career by going anti-Semitic — wasn’t exactly an ideal dinner guest. Nor is Trump himself, for that matter.
I am shocked that Nick Fuentes and Kanye West had dinner with a known white supremacist.
— THE PERSUADERS by Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) November 26, 2022
The dinner earned widespread scorn, even from within the GOP. It also enraged a key wrestler.
FUCK THE NICK FUENTES
— The Iron Sheik (@the_ironsheik) November 25, 2022