Former United States President Donald Trump is under fire over his Mar-a-Lago dinner with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, and White supremacist Nick Fuentes.
Jewish allies have called the Republican businessman's dinner with antisemites a breaking point., arguing that Trump is legitimizing Jew-hatred and Jew haters. For the majority of the former president's presidency, Jewish Republicans rationalized away the bigoted fringe of Trump's coalition.
Trump Under Fire
They argued that the unsavory supporters in Trump's midst and the antisemitic tropes that he deployed paled in comparison with the staunchly pro-Israel policies that his administration championed.
The head of the right-wing Zionist Organization of America, Morton Klein, on Monday said that he was a child of survivors and noted that he had become very frightened for his people after Trump's affair with Fuentes.
Klein argued that while Trump was not an antisemite and loves Israel and Jews, he mainstreams and legitimizes Jew-hatred and Jew haters. While not all Republican leaders have spoken out about the issue, Jewish Republicans are slowly distancing themselves from the former president over various issues, as per the New York Times.
The situation comes as for years, Trump insisted that he had no ties to the bigoted far right but had also refused to repudiate it. Since the former president's dinner with Fuentes, several Jewish figures and organizations who supported Trump, including Klein's group, commentator Ben Shapiro, and Trump's former ambassador to Israel David M. Friedman, have spoken out.
The main concern for Jews extends far beyond Trump's single meal with Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago, despite that incident becoming a touchstone, particularly for Jewish Republicans. A former adviser to former President George W. Bush, Jay Lefkowitz, said that they have a long history of separating the moral character of the man in the White House from his conduct in office.
However, he noted that with Trump, the situation goes far beyond any of the reasonably acceptable and justifiable norms. On the other hand, for American Jewry, talks since Trump's dinner with Fuentes brought into focus what may be considered the most discomfiting moment in the history of the United States in the last half-century or more.
Meeting with Antisemites
According to Yahoo News, the top two Republicans in Congress also condemned on Monday Trump's Mar-a-Lago dinner with Fuentes. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that there was no room in the GOP for antisemitism or white supremacy. He added that any individual meeting with people advocating that point of view was highly unlikely to be elected president of the U.S.
Furthermore, Sen. Mitt Romney rebuked the former president's meeting with Ye and Fuentes, calling it "disgusting." The official said that there was "no bottom to the degree which he's willing to degrade himself and the country for that matter," referencing Trump.
On the other hand, Trump has defended himself, saying that the dinner meeting was only supposed to be between him and Ye. The former president added that he did not know the rapper would bring Fuentes, who Trump said he had never met and knew nothing about, Axios reported.
Related Article : Donald Trump, Kanye West Fallout Over Nick Fuentes Attendance at Mar-a-Lago Dinner
