By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency / Jewish News Agency
Florida — November 27, 2022 … Anti-racist groups have condemned Donald Trump for having a dinner with American white supremacist and anti-semite Nick Fuentes after details of their encounter at the former US president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida emerged.
The meeting is the latest in a long line of anti-semitic incidents involving Trump and the extreme far right, including once referencing the Neo-Nazi Proud Boys in a presidential debate and his comments that there were “very fine people on both sides” after 2017 clashes at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left one anti-fascist protester dead.
Trump admitted he met Fuentes – who is open about his extreme racist and anti-semitic views on his podcast – during a dinner with Kanye West, the rapper now known as Ye.
One person present at the dinner said that Trump was very impressed by Fuentes. “He was impressed with Nick and his knowledge of Trump World. Nick knew people and figures and speeches and rallies and what surrounded the Trump culture, particularly when it came to the base,” Karen Giorno, a former Trump aide and senior adviser, told the Washington Post.
Republicans have not commented on Trump and his associations with racists except for Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition.
“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,” Brooks told the Washington Post.
Joel Leyden, the executive director of the Center Against Antisemitism which campaigns against bigotry and antisemitism, condemned Trump’s meeting with Fuentes and expressed shock at the development.
“Nick Fuentes is among the most prominent and unapologetic antisemites in the country,” said Leyden.
“He’s a vicious bigot and known Holocaust denier who has been condemned by leading figures from both political parties here.”
Leyden added: “Many think that Trump is pro-Israel because he moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. What they don’t know is that billionaire Sheldon Adelson paid Trump through millions of dollars in campaign donations.”
Sheldon Adelson, the Republican Party’s biggest funder over the past decade, used a $20 million donation to a super PAC to pressure then-president Donald Trump to adopt the decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That quid-pro-quo is described in New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman’s new book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.”
“Adelson’s singular focus was Israel,” wrote Haberman, effectively acknowledging that the former president’s biggest funder was most interested in promoting the interests of the Jewish community.
Dining with bigots is perfectly on brand for Trump, given his well-documented history of making vulgar comments about majority non-White countries and downplaying the threat posed by White supremacists.