Trump says he didn’t know who Nick Fuentes was when Ye brought him as a dinner guest

Former president Donald Trump has come under fire the past few days after hosting rapper Kanye West and Nick Fuentes for dinner at Mar-a-Lago last Tuesday evening, and spoke with Fox News Digital this week about the meeting, saying that he does not know Fuentes.

During the interview on Tuesday, Trump claimed he was caught off-guard by West – who currently goes by the name Ye – bringing guests with him to the dinner, and that he did not know who Nick Fuentes was, or what his beliefs were.

According to many reports, Fuentes is a far-right white supremacist live streamer who was instrumental in organizing the infamous Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville in 2017. 

Trump also clapped back at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who earlier this week spoke out against Trump’s entertaining Fuentes, saying there is “no room” in the Republican party for beliefs like Fuentes’.

Trump lashed out at McConnell on Fox News, saying, “Mitch is a loser for our nation and for the Republican Party who would not have been re-elected in Kentucky without my endorsement.”

Some other Republicans have responded to the dinner, including his own former vice president, Mike Pence, who called for Trump to apologize for the event.

“Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an antisemite and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table,” Pence said to NewsNation this week. “I think he should apologize for it.” 

Fuentes said on his show following the dinner that he did not believe Trump recognized him at the dinner, but would not go so far as to say the former president did not know him at all.