Trump under fire after dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes – follow live

“This past week, Kanye West called me to have dinner at Mar-a-Lago,” he said. “Shortly thereafter, he unexpectedly showed up with three of his friends, whom I knew nothing about. We had dinner on Tuesday evening with many members present on the back patio. The dinner was quick and uneventful. They then left for the airport.”

Of course, Mr Fuentes has been a prominent figure for years. In the days after the 2020 presidential election, he led the “Million MAGA March,” calling it “MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE.”

The former president’s words were familiar to anyone who has paid attention to how he has denied any knowledge about white supremacist and extremist groups. His campaign announcement where he called immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border as drug dealers, criminals and rapists emboldened numerous white nationalists, antisemites and other extremist groups like the Proud Boys.

Speaking with NBC’s Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, Congressman James Comer predicted that his committee would launch “40 to 50” separate probes after Republicans take power and control of the House’s various committee’s in January.

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Mr Trump has attempted to distance himself from Mr Fuentes after the controversial dinner was first reported by Axios, claiming he had no idea who the Holocaust-denying far-right extremist was.

In several posts to Truth Social describing the Tuesday night dinner, Mr Trump said West showed up with three friends “whom I knew nothing about”.

Donald Trump is fending off critics on all sides after a deeply controversial meeting with rapper Kanye West, also known as Ye.

The former president is taking fire from all sides over the meeting, partly over Mr West’s recent anti-Jewish rhetoric but mostly due to the attendace of Nick Fuentes, a leader of America’s white nationalist “groyper” movement. Mr Fuentes is an avowed racist who has, among other caustic beliefs, expressed doubt about the Holocaust and supported the concept of segregation in the south, calling the civil rights movement a mistake.

The meeting took place at Mr Trump’s residence in Florida, Mar-a-Lago, where he now spends much of his time. The residence was recently the site of his 2024 campaign launch, a muted affair that was avoided by his own daughter and former White House adviser, Ivanka Trump.

Mr Trump announced his campaign for president earlier this month, days after the bulk of the midterm elections concluded, and it was clear that a fixation on the 2020 election conspiracies that he espouses hurt GOP candidates in key elections around the country.

Donald Trump sharply criticised rapper Kanye West and ramped up his efforts to distance himself from a recent meeting between the two as the fallout over Mr Trump’s association with Mr West’s campaign advisers continues.

Mr Trump issued a statement via Truth Social calling the rapper a “seriously troubled man, who just happens to be black” and once again denied knowing Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist and racist who latched on to Mr West amid his increasingly erratic spiral into hate speech and the utter destruction of his musical career.

“So I help a seriously troubled man, who just happens to be black, Ye (Kanye West), who has been decimated in his business and virtually everything else, and who has always been good to me, by allowing his request for a meeting at Mar-a-Lago, alone, so that I can give him very much needed “advice.” He shows up with 3 people, two of which I didn’t know, the other a political person who I haven’t seen in years,” claimed the former president.

David M Friedman, ambassador to Israel in the Trump administration, has urged the former president to “throw those bums out”, with regard to Mr Trump’s dinner with Kanye West and white supremacist Nick Fuentes.

Mr Trump has attempted to distance himself from Mr Fuentes after the controversial dinner was first reported by Axios, claiming he had no idea who the Holocaust-denying far-right extremist was.

In several posts to Truth Social describing the Tuesday night dinner, Mr Trump said West showed up with three friends “whom I knew nothing about”.