Republican lawmakers "have largely remained silent" after former President Donald Trump hosted Kanye "Ye" West and Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier and white supremacist, for dinner at Mar-a-Lago last week, Axios reported Sunday. "Spokespeople for nearly two dozen House and Senate Republicans — including party leaders, co-chairs of caucuses and task forces focused on Judaism or antisemitism, and sponsors of legislation to combat antisemitic hate crimes — did not respond to requests for comment," reviving "a tactic they frequently relied on during his presidency."
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), the Republican co-chair of the bipartisan Caucus for the Advancement of Torah Values, said he is "appalled" at Trump's dinner party, and Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) told NBC's Meet the Press that Trump "needs better judgment in who he dines with." Outgoing Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), frequent Trump critics, also condemned his meeting with Fuentes — and the failure of GOP leadership to do the same.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Republican Jewish groups and individuals, notably Trump's former ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, criticized the dinner with Ye and Fuentes, and former Gov. Chris Christie (R), like Hutchinson a potential 2024 GOP presidential primary rival to Trump, called it "another example of an awful lack of judgment" that makes Trump an "untenable" presidential candidate.
Trump said several times since West revealed their dinner with Fuentes and two others that he "had never met and knew nothing about" about one of his dinner guests, presumably meaning Fuentes. He has also insisted to aides since Tuesday's dinner "that he did not know Fuentes, a Trump supporter active on Truth Social," though "some in his circle said they were skeptical," The Washington Post reports. Privately, advisers described the dinner as "horrible" and "totally awful."
Ye brought Fuentes, 24, to Mar-a-Lago without informing Trump beforehand, but Ye and one of the other dinner guests, former Trump senior adviser Karen Giorno agreed that Trump was really impressed with Fuentes. The cordial dinner turned tense after Trump "started talking negatively" about Kim Kardashian, Ye's ex-wife, Giorno told the Post, and got really heated when Ye offered Trump a spot as his running mate in 2024.
-
August 10 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday's political cartoons include a global plastics problem, GOP enthusiasm over tariffs, and more
-
5 thin-skinned cartoons about shooting the messengerCartoons Artists take on unfavorable weather, a look in the mirror, and more
-
Is Trump's new peacemaking model working in DR Congo?Talking Point Truce brokered by the US president in June is holding, but foundations of a long-term peace have let to be laid
-
DHS preps for major ICE expansion, rankling local law enforcementIN THE SPOTLIGHT As the Trump administration positions ICE as the primary federal police force, its recruitment efforts have been met with a less-than-enthusiastic response
-
Trump officials reinstating 2 Confederate monumentsSpeed Read The administration has plans to 'restore Confederate names and symbols' discarded in the wake of George Floyd's 2020 murder
-
Trump nominates Powell critic for vacant Fed seatspeed read Stephen Miran, the chair of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers and a fellow critic of Fed chair Jerome Powell, has been nominated to fill a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
-
JD Vance rises as MAGA heir apparentIN THE SPOTLIGHT The vice president is taking an increasingly proactive role in a MAGA movement roiled by scandal and anxious about a post-Trump future
-
Congress should 'step in' to block Trump's White House ballroom makeoverInstant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
ICE scraps age limits amid hiring pushSpeed Read Anyone 18 or older can now apply to be an ICE agent
-
Trump's global tariffs take effect, with new additionsSpeed Read Tariffs on more than 90 US trading partners went into effect, escalating the global trade war
-
House committee subpoenas Epstein filesSpeed Read The House Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena to the Justice Department for its Jeffrey Epstein files with an Aug. 19 deadline
