Trump calls Kanye West a ‘seriously troubled man’ after Mar-a-Lago dinner
'I told him don’t run for office, a total waste of time, can’t win,' former president says of disgraced rapper's 2024 presidential hopes
By Daniel Kreps
Donald Trump called Kanye West “a seriously troubled man, who happens to be black” in the former president’s latest statement after having dinner at Mar-a-Lago with the disgraced rapper along with a known white supremacist and Holocaust denier.
In a Truth Social post Saturday, Trump said that he met with West in order to “help” him as he’s “been decimated in his business and virtually everything else,” and that West “has always been good to me.” Trump did not acknowledge the rash of antisemitism that got West into his current predicament.
Although West requested a meeting “alone,” he showed up “with 3 people, two of which I didn’t know.” One of those people were Nick Fuentes, a far-right activist infamous for his white supremacist and antisemitic views.
In a video posted after the Mar-a-Lago dinner — which reportedly got heated after West, who is planning his own presidential run in 2024, suggested to Trump that the former president be his running mate — West claimed that Trump was “really impressed with Nick Fuentes.” Trump previously wrote on Truth Social that he “didn’t know” Fuentes.
Despite facing condemnation for even accidentally meeting with Fuentes — Chris Christie and Trump’s ambassador to Israel David Friedman were among those who criticized Trump’s actions — Trump didn’t comment on the controversy in his latest statement, dismissing it as “Fake news went crazy,” and instead focusing on West’s 2024 presidential prospects.
“I told him don’t run for office, a total waste of time, can’t win,” Trump wrote Saturday.
West seemingly confirmed the confrontation in his own video, saying, “Trump started basically screaming at me at the table, telling me I was gonna lose. I mean, has that ever worked for anyone in history? I’m like, hold on hold on, you’re talking about Ye.”
Deputy White House Press Secretary Andrew Bates denounced the meeting in a statement, “Bigotry, hate, and antisemitism have absolutely no place in America — including at Mar-A-Lago. Holocaust denial is repugnant and dangerous, and it must be forcefully condemned.”
When asked about Trump’s Mar-a-Lago dinner, President Joe Biden quipped to the press, “You don’t want to hear what I think.”
An unnamed longtime Trump advisor was more blunt in their assessment of the Ye meeting, calling the situation “a fucking nightmare” to NBC News. “If people are looking at [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis to run against Trump, here’s another reason why,” they added.
The past several months have seen West under intense scrutiny as his business, personal and musical affairs disintegrate in the aftermath of his antisemitic rants. Earlier this week, Rolling Stone reported that multiple former Yeezy employees said West played pornography to them and showed them inappropriate pictures of Kardashian, among other alleged tactics of intimidation and control. On Thursday, Adidas — who dropped the Yeezy line in late October — confirmed that it is conducting an internal investigation into West’s management tactics.