https://www.mediaite.com/ .. at-mar-a-lago/
As Donald Trump attempts to downplay his evening with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, new reporting from Jonathan Swan a*serts that the former president warmly recieved the Holocaust-denying White nationalist.
Political observers were shocked and outraged when news broke that Fuentes and the rapper known as Ye had dinner with Trump this week at his Mar-a-Lago resort
West has been under public scrutiny for weeks over his bizarre, anti-semitic statements, while Fuentes is an alt-right white supremacist known for defending segregation, denying the Holocaust, admiring fascists, and his other violent and hostile rhetoric
Swan reported for Axios that Trump hosted Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago, and the former president seemingly confirmed it with a sequence of statements on that night
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While Trump described the dinner as “quick and uneventful” while describing Fuentes as an unexpected guest, Swan provided new details to his original report, and they suggest Trump took a liking to Fuentes throughout their meeting
From the report:
A source familiar with the dinner conversation told Axios that Trump “seemed very taken” with Fuentes, impressed that the 24-year-old was able to rattle off statistics and recall speeches dating back to his 2016 campaign.
Paraphrasing the conversation, the source said Fuentes told the president he preferred him to be “authentic,” and that Trump seemed scripted and unlike himself during his recent 2024 campaign announcement speech
Trump responded, “You like it better when I just speak off the cuff,” the source said. Fuentes replied that he did, calling Trump an “amazing” president when he was unrestrained. “There was a lot of fawning back and forth,” the source added
The conversation between Fuentes and Trump reportedly went on with Fuentes telling the latter he would crush Ron DeSantis and any other Republican who might challenge him in the 2024 primary
There have been public debates about whether the Florida governor should replace Trump as leader of the GOP, and Trump has been railing against DeSantis while this discourse has played out
According to Swan’s source, Trump turned to West after Fuentes put down his other rivals, saying “I really like this guy. He gets me.”
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While Trump chose to minimize Fuentes’ presence at the dinner afterward, West has been more vocal about the shine the ex-president allegedly took to Fuentes.
In a video West posted to social media, he said Trump was “really impressed with Nick Fuentes.” West also claimed in the video that he and Trump had a less-than-friendly conversation when he suggested running for president with Trump as his running mate
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UPDATE – 5:36 p.m. ET: Trump posted a new statement about the West and Fuentes encounter on Truth Social
https://truthsocial.com/@ .. 06813442573326
Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, was asking me for advice concerning some of his difficulties, in particular having to do with his business
We also discussed, to a lesser extent, politics, where I told him he should definitely not run for President, “any voters you may have should vote for TRUMP.”
Anyway, we got along great, he expressed no anti-Semitism, & I appreciated all of the nice things he said about me on “Tucker Carlson.” Why wouldn’t I agree to meet?
Also, I didn’t know Nick Fuentes
