Donald Trump has come to the bipartisan complaint about his recent dinner with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist and defender of the far right.
Critics from across the political spectrum — adding some reluctant Republicans — have criticized the former president and suggested he take a more competitive stance in denouncing anti-Semitism.
“I don’t think it’s a smart concept for a leader who sets an example for the country or the party to meet with an outspoken racist or anti-Semite,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican who has said it’s a 2024 presidential bid, said on CNN. “It’s very concerning and shouldn’t happen. “
“Anti-Semitism is a cancer,” tweeted Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former secretary of state. “This is terrible and unacceptable behavior on the part of anyone, but especially through a former president and existing candidate. “
“To my friend Donald Trump, you’re bigger than this. Even a social network of an anti-Semite like Kanye West and human scum like Nick Fuentes is unacceptable,” David Friedman, Trump’s ambassador to Israel, wrote on Twitter.
President Biden hijacked a dinner consultation over the weekend and told reporters, “You don’t need to know what I think.
In typical Trump fashion, the twice-indicted former president defended his habit by pretending to be a Samaritan.
“So I’m helping a man with serious problems, who happens to be black, Ye (Kanye West), who has been decimated in his business and in almost everything else, and who has been smart to me in allowing his Mar—a request for a meeting from Lago, alone, so I can give him much-needed ‘advice. ‘” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. He added in a later message: “Why wouldn’t you agree to meet with you?Also, I didn’t know Nick Fuentes.
Fuentes is a 24-year-old who promotes white nationalist online platforms. The FBI has called him a white supremacist in court documents. He also questioned the Holocaust, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
One would have to be dangerously naïve in saying that Trump doesn’t know white supremacists like Fuentes and their help for him. The fact is that it has a long and troubling history of not repudiating hate speech. Among his aides are the Daily Stormer, a prominent neo-Nazi news site; Jared Taylor, editor of American Renaissance, a white nationalist magazine founded in Virginia; and Michael Hill, leader of the Southern League, a white racist organization founded in Alabama.
During his arguable presidency, Trump made outlandish comments that directly emboldened white nationalists. He said there was “responsibility on both sides” for the violence in Charlottesville, which included the death of 34-year-old Heather Heyer.
He was a staunch supporter of Barack Obama’s birth theory, first claiming that the country’s first black president was not born an American by birth. He then retracted his misleading comments at a fictitious press conference to announce the opening of one of his hotels.
Unfortunately, Trump’s call for it is nothing new.
Over the years, Trump has said that other black people have an inherent laziness that is likely genetic in nature and has referred to covid-19 as a “Kung flu” and a “Chinese virus. “It calls Mexicans “criminals” and “rapists” and tries to ban Muslims from entering the United States. He also called countries in Africa and Latin America “countries with holes. “
Perhaps one of the most telling examples of Trump’s appeal to fans is the comment of an unnamed guy cited as the “imperial wizard” of the KKK brigade knights.
He said the explanation for why many Klansmen like Trump are “because a lot of what he believes, we believe. “
No more to say.
Elwood Watson is Professor of History, African American Studies, and Gender and Sexuality Studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also a teacher and professor.