News
Trump Claims He ‘Knew Nothing About’ the White Supremacist Antisemite Who He and Kanye West Dined With at Mar-a-Lago
Donald Trump and Kanye West had dinner at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday night and the disgraced artist who goes by “Ye” brought a guest, the white supremacist, antisemite and “America First” and “Big Lie” purveyor Nick Fuentes. Now the former president is claiming Fuentes was a guest of West, and he knows “nothing” about him.
“Trump’s direct engagement with a man labeled a ‘white supremacist’ by the Justice Department, one week after declaring his 2024 candidacy, is likely to draw renewed outrage over the former president’s embrace of extremists,” Axios’ Jonathan Swan and Zachary Basu report.
Axios notes that in a video West posted to his recently restored Twitter account, he says, “Trump was ‘really impressed’ with Fuentes because ‘unlike so many of the lawyers and so many people that he was left with on his 2020 campaign, he’s actually a loyalist.'”
“Ye, who has lost major sponsorships over his anti-Semitism and recent far-right associations, has said he wants to run for president in 2024,” Axios adds. “The rapper claims Trump started ‘screaming’ at him at the dinner and told him he would lose — ‘most perturbed’ by Ye asking Trump to be his running mate.”
Swan says Trump issued a statement in response to his reporting, claiming he does not know Fuentes.
“Kanye West very much wanted to visit Mar-a-Lago,” Trump’s statement says, an apparent attempt to minimize his dining with two racists and antisemites. “Our dinner meeting was intended to be Kanye and me only, but he arrived with a guest whom I had never met and knew nothing about.”
The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman observes that Trump’s “statement does nothing to denounce that background, including Holocaust denialism, or even acknowledge it.”
Trump first claiming West just wanted to see Mar-a-Lago, but immediately after calling it a “meeting” is notable, given that West has since suggested he is running for president.
Axios importantly adds that “Fuentes first gained notoriety after attending the white supremacist ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville in 2017,” and, “Trump was heavily criticized at the time for his response to the racist violence.”
Journalist Jeff Sharlet is the executive producer of Netflix’s “The Family,” based on his books that exposed the secretive Christian right organization of the same name. The Family, also called The Fellowship, hosts the annual National Prayer Breakfast. Its members were involved in Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill.
Sharlet warns this is an “inflection point.”
“Trump dinner with Ye, at this point, is a major story,” Sharlet tweeted. “But with Nick Fuentes? That’s an inflection point even for a former president already committed to fascism.”
Journalist and activist Elad Nehorai tweeted: “Never let a single right winger or Republican claim they care about Jews after this. Fuentes openly praises Hitler. He is a Holocaust denier. He is one of the US’s most dangerous white nationalists. Trump hosted him & not one Republican had said a word.”
Attorney and former Republican Ron Filipkowski, who tracks and reports on right wing extremism, says Trump’s statement “reminds me of the time when Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was in the WH in Dec 2020 and said he was just there to check out the Christmas decorations.”
Tarrio told ABC News last year he “got invited to the White House Christmas decorations tour through ‘Latinos For Trump.'”
READ MORE: ‘Standard Bearer of Trumpism’ Marjorie Taylor Greene Bridges White Nationalism and the GOP
Top national security attorney Brad Moss mocked Trump’s claim about the Mar-a-Lago dinner.
“Trump legal team: MAL is a totally secure place where we can be trusted to store classified records,” he tweeted. “Trump PR team: Security at MAL is so lax that a raving white supremacist can just crash Trump’s dinner party with Ye.”
Indeed, The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman commented, “It’s not the central issue with meeting with Fuentes, but the fact that people can show up unvetted and meet with Trump at his club is part of what alarmed the DOJ about his retention of government records, including classified material, when he left office.”
She also posted a screenshot from her book, relevant to Trump’s embrace of the two racists and antisemites. She quotes him saying, “A lot of these people vote,” in relation to “Trump’s refusal to condemn David Duke’s support forcefully in early 2016.”
Related: from CONFIDENCE MAN, Trump’s refusal to condemn David Duke’s support forcefully in early 2016. “A lot of these people vote.” pic.twitter.com/BcsX7pXKbb
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 25, 2022
The AntiDefamation League (ADL) in a 2021 report wrote, “Nicholas Fuentes is a white supremacist leader and organizer and podcaster who seeks to forge a white nationalist alternative to the mainstream GOP.”
Some of Fuentes’ antisemitism has been documented by ADL.
“Fuentes has made a number of racist and antisemitic comments under the guise of being provocative and ironic,” ADLs report states. “For example, he has referred to Daily Wire columnist Matt Walsh as ‘shabbos goy race traitor’ because he works for Jews (Ben Shapiro, a Jewish conservative, runs the Daily Wire). On a livestream episode, Fuentes ‘jokingly’ denied the Holocaust and compared Jews burnt in concentration camps to cookies in an oven. On May 24, 2021, Fuentes participated in a debate on right-wing conspiracist Alex Jones’ InfoWars with Robert Barnes, a man described as a ‘constitutional lawyer’ who has legally defended both Jones and Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse. During the debate, Fuentes made numerous antisemitic remarks, including, ‘I don’t see Jews as Europeans and I don’t see them as part of Western civilization, particularly because they are not Christians.'”
Fuentes is strongly pro-Trump, as West alluded to.
“Fuentes promoted election fraud narratives and encouraged his adherents to participate in nationwide ‘Stop the Steal’ protests,” according to ADL.
This article has been updated to include Jeff Sharlet’s remarks.
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Donald Trump, his team, his allies, and his supporters in the right-wing media have been calling his presidential win “historic,” and a “landslide,” while using those provably false claims to declare a mandate. The voting from the election earlier this month is still not complete but Trump’s slim margin of victory is likely to shrink even further.
As The New York Times reports, the results prove Trump’s election claims are false.
Calling it, “The ‘Landslide’ That Wasn’t,” The Times’ Peter Baker reports the “latest vote count shows that Donald J. Trump won the popular vote by one of the smallest margins since the 19th century. But Mr. Trump claims a ‘powerful mandate.'”
Trump claimed falsely on election night, “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate.”
READ MORE: Trump Spokesperson Whitewashes Record With Indefinite Sentencing Delay Remarks
But Trump’s “margin over Vice President Kamala Harris was about 1.6 percentage points, the third smallest since 1888, and could ultimately end up around 1.5 points.”
Trump won less than 50% of the popular vote, meaning he did not win a majority. His popular vote margin, according to the Cook Political Report’s vote tracker, is now at a slim 1.62 percentage points, or just less than 2.5 million votes. Some states are still counting, including California which has over 350,000 ballots left to process.
“Asked about the president-elect’s characterization of his victory,” The Times adds, “Mr. Trump’s campaign sent a statement by Steven Cheung, his communications director, attacking The Times and repeating the sweeping claims. ‘President Trump won in dominating and historic fashion after the Democrats and the fake news media peddled outright lies and disinformation throughout the campaign,’ he said.”
What is an actual landslide?
“Real landslides have been unmistakable, including Lyndon B. Johnson’s in 1964 by 22.6 points, Richard M. Nixon’s in 1972 by 23.2 points and Ronald Reagan’s in 1984 by 18.2 points. In the 40 years since that Reagan victory, no president has won the popular vote by double digits,” The Times reports.
The Times also refers to Trump’s history of similar false claims.
READ MORE: ‘Prosecutors Will Be Prosecuted’: Pam Bondi Vowed DOJ ‘Deep State’ Will Be ‘Cleaned Out’
After winning the 2016 election, Trump “declared that he secured ‘the biggest Electoral College win since Ronald Reagan,’ which was true only if one did not count George H.W. Bush, [Bill] Clinton and Barack Obama, each of whom won larger totals in the Electoral College.”
“A year later, Mr. Trump claimed online to be ‘the most popular Republican in history of the Party,’ which again was true only if one did not count five other Republican presidents who were more popular since World War II, according to polls. And he regularly boasted at rallies that he won the women’s vote in 2016, which was true only if one did not count women who were not white.”
NPR’s Brian Mann commented, “Remarkable how readily Democrats ceded the narrative to Trump. One of his many talents is convincing people -including his political enemies – to view small things (a 1.6% win) as incredibly big things (a mandate to reshape American civic life).”
Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali, also responding to The Times’ report, writes, “Divisive president who never got 50% of popular vote now leads divided nation. He’s going to be a mess. Pure chaos.”
In his election night remarks (video below) Trump declared, “This was a movement like nobody’s ever seen before, and frankly, this was I believe this was the greatest political movement of all time. Thee’s never been anything like this in this country and maybe beyond.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
“We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible.”
Former Pres. Trump addresses supporters at Election Night headquarters: “This was a movement like nobody’s ever seen before, and frankly, I believe this was the greatest political movement of all time.” pic.twitter.com/spWMwVgAci
— ABC News (@ABC) November 6, 2024
READ MORE: Byron Donalds ‘Not Surprised’ at Snub from Trump’s Nearly-All White Administration
New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan has issued an indefinite delay in the sentencing of Donald Trump, who was found guilty in a criminal trial and convicted on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to influence the outcome of the 2016 election, in the so-called “hush money” case. In response, incoming Trump White House communications director Steven Cheung issued a statement whitewashing Trump’s record.
Trump’s attorneys have asked for the case to be dismissed, or for the judge to overturn the verdict, ABC News reports, adding: “If Judge Merchan tosses the conviction, he could order a new trial — which would be delayed for at least four years until Trump leaves office — or dismiss the indictment altogether.”
In that same order, Judge Merchan also allowed Trump’s legal team to submit a motion to dismiss, as Law.com reports.
Merchan did not schedule a new sentencing date.
READ MORE: ‘Prosecutors Will Be Prosecuted’: Pam Bondi Vowed DOJ ‘Deep State’ Will Be ‘Cleaned Out’
Professor of Law and former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance observed: “Sad day for the rule of law.”
“Understand that the Judge hasn’t ruled yet & the DA maintains the conviction is proper. But the delay in sentencing is just another chink in the armor of justice,” she noted.
U.S. Senator-elect Adam Schiff (D-CA), posting the judge’s order, remarked, “If anyone ever wanted to see what “justice delayed is justice denied” looks like in legal form, this is it.”
If anyone ever wanted to see what “justice delayed is justice denied” looks like in legal form, this is it: pic.twitter.com/Yt9e06xIyJ
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) November 22, 2024
Meanwhile, Trump communications director Steven Cheung made several controversial claims in a statement reported by The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell: “In a decisive win for President Trump, the hoax Manhattan Case is now fully stayed and sentencing is adjourned. President Trump won a landslide victory as the American People have issued a mandate to return him to office and dispose of all remnants of the Witch Hunt cases. All of the sham lawfare attacks against President Trump are now destroyed and we are focused on Making America Great Again.”
The case was not a “hoax.” A grand jury indicted Trump and a New York jury convicted him on all counts.
Sentencing is not “adjourned,” but delayed.
Trump did not win in a “landslide victory,” nor does he have a “mandate,” political pundits and experts say.
READ MORE: Top Trump Advisor Threatens Republicans to Support Nominees or Face a Primary: Report
Earlier this week MSNBC’s Chris Hayes wrote, “The final 2024 election tally is almost in. It should end the MAGA mandate myth.”
Trump won less than 50% of the popular vote, meaning he did not win a majority. His popular vote margin, according to Cook Political Report’s vote tracker, is now at a slim 1.62 percentage points, or just less than 2.5 million votes. Some states are still counting, including California which has over 350,000 ballots left to count.
Four days ago, CNN’s Harry Enten reported Trump’s popular vote victory ranks him near the bottom: 44th out of 51.
Trump’s mandate? It’s very shallow. Trump’s now under 50% in the popular vote. His margin ranks 44 of 51 since 1824.
Weak coattails: 4 Dems won for Senate in states Trump won. (It was 0 in 2016 & 2020.)
The GOP is on track for smallest House majority since there were 50 states. pic.twitter.com/FaE80nk4T6
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) November 18, 2024
The legal cases are not all destroyed. The Georgia case has not been dismissed. The New York case that Cheung mentions is not finished. Even the classified documents case that was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon is being appealed, at least for now.
READ MORE: Byron Donalds ‘Not Surprised’ at Snub from Trump’s Nearly-All White Administration
Image via Reuters
President-elect Donald Trump’s latest pick to become Attorney General, former Florida AG Pam Bondi, is a MAGA supporter who vowed last year that if Trump were to return to the White House, the “deep state” would be eliminated from the U.S. Dept. of Justice and the “prosecutors will be prosecuted.”
Trump’s nomination of Bondi comes after his first pick, former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was forced to withdraw. Senators on both sides of the aisle made clear Gaetz’s chances for confirmation were slim given investigations into allegations of possible sex with a minor, possible payments for sex, and possible sex-trafficking. He has also been under investigation for possible illicit drug use and questions about possible campaign finance improprieties.
In 2023, Bondi told Fox News host Sean Hannity that “when Republicans take back the White House and we will be back you know what’s gonna happen, the Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones.”
READ MORE: Top Trump Advisor Threatens Republicans to Support Nominees or Face a Primary: Report
“The investigators will be investigated because the deep state last term for President Trump, they were hiding in the shadows,” she claimed. “But now they have a spotlight on them, and they can all be investigated and the house needs to be cleaned out because now we know who most of them are. There’s a record of it and we can clean house next term, and that’s what has to happen.”
On CNN’s “Out Front,” Erin Burnett Thursday evening reported that Bondi has made “it clear she is on the exact same page as Trump when it comes to his claim that the Justice Department has been politicized.”
And she noted that “Bondi has been a very successful fighter for Trump in the 2020 election. She was on the front lines pushing Trump’s election lies. She said, ‘we’ve won Pennsylvania and we want every vote to be counted in a fair way.’ Of course, he did not win Pennsylvania.”
“During Trump’s criminal trial in New York. She was one of his top defenders,” Burnett added.
Rolling Stone on Friday also notes that Bondi has “supported retaliation against Trump’s political rivals in the past. In 2016, — during Trump’s campaign — she called for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s security clearance to be revoked, and egged on supporters who chanted ‘lock her up’ at the Republican National Convention.”
“’Lock her up, I love that,’ she told the crowd.”
READ MORE: Byron Donalds ‘Not Surprised’ at Snub from Trump’s Nearly-All White Administration
ABC News reports that “Bondi registered as a foreign agent for the government of Qatar as part of her lobbying work.”
Donald Trump was prosecuted by Special Counsel Jack Smith in two separate cases. One for his alleged actions surrounding the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the insurrection, and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost. The second was for Trump’s alleged removal, retention, and refusal to return classified and top secret classified documents, including some of the nation’s nuclear and defense secrets.
In a state criminal trial, Trump was convicted for “falsifying New York business records in order to conceal his illegal scheme to corrupt the 2016 election,” according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Trump also has been facing prosecution in Georgia for his alleged efforts in that state to overturn the 2020 election. That case is ongoing, according to WMAL.
Trump’s classified documents case, largely prosecuted under the Espionage Act, was dismissed by a federal judge appointed by Trump in 2020 who was confirmed just before he left office.
The Special Counsel is now winding down his work after Trump won the presidential election earlier this month, given sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted, and Trump’s Attorney General would in all likelihood drop the case.
READ MORE: ‘I’m Not Here to Fight’: First Trans Member of Congress Responds to Johnson’s Bathroom Ban
Image via Reuters
‘One of the Smallest Margins Since the 19th Century’: NYT Crushes Trump’s ‘Landslide’ Claim
Trump Spokesperson Whitewashes Record With Indefinite Sentencing Delay Remarks
‘Prosecutors Will Be Prosecuted’: Pam Bondi Vowed DOJ ‘Deep State’ Will Be ‘Cleaned Out’
Top Trump Advisor Threatens Republicans to Support Nominees or Face a Primary: Report
Byron Donalds ‘Not Surprised’ at Snub from Trump’s Nearly-All White Administration
News4 days agoByron Donalds ‘Not Surprised’ at Snub from Trump’s Nearly-All White Administration
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News2 days ago‘One of the Smallest Margins Since the 19th Century’: NYT Crushes Trump’s ‘Landslide’ Claim
News2 days agoTrump Spokesperson Whitewashes Record With Indefinite Sentencing Delay Remarks