Political commentator Ben Shapiro on Sunday tacitly condemned U.S. President Donald Trump for hosting a dinner last week attended by Ye and Holocaust denier and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, sparking a Twitter war-of-words with the artist formerly known as Kanye West.
“A good way not to accidentally dine with a vile racist and anti-Semite you don’t know is not to dine with a vile racist and anti-Semite you do know,” tweeted Shapiro. He was referring to Trump’s claim that he had not known anything about Fuentes, whom Ye had invited to Mar-a-Lago.
Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign released a statement, published by Breitbart, saying, “Kanye West very much wanted to visit Mar-a-Lago. Our dinner meeting was intended to be Kanye and me only, but he arrived with a guest (Fuentes) whom I had never met and knew nothing about.”
The 24-year-old Fuentes has emerged as one of the leading figures of the far-right movement for his incendiary views on women, Jews and other minorities. He openly praises Hitler, believes that the Holocaust was a hoax and is opposed to women’s suffrage. He was also present for the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017, and spoke at a “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C., on the day of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
In response to Shapiro’s tweet, Ye, who has been embroiled in an antisemitism scandal, wrote: “Shapiro starvingly accepts $100,000 from one of my opponents then tries to trash me.” He was referring to reports that a superpac associated with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is expected to challenge Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, had paid fundraising expenses and list rental costs to Shapiro’s Daily Wire news outlet.
https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1597001528685907968
In response, Shapiro tweeted on Monday: “Sadly, you’ve trashed yourself. You didn’t need my help. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t the Jews. It was just you.”
https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1597007099317620736
Ye then struck a more conciliatory tone, writing: “As much as Ben and I disagree I pray he joins me in saving our country. You know what they say love your enema …. I mean …. uuuugh. Spelling’s not my core competency when I’m sleepy. If Nick [Fuentes] keeps tweeting from my account the only platform I’ll have left is Truth Social.”
https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1597048798307418112
According to Ye, Tuesday’s dinner meeting with Trump went south after the former American leader insulted the rapper’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian.
Ye added that Trump started “screaming” at him, saying that the disgraced artist’s own bid to win the presidency in 2024 would fail. In October, Ye claimed that a “Jewish underground media mafia” was targeting him, that he doesn’t believe in the term “antisemitic,” and that today’s music industry is akin to “modern-day slavery.”
Earlier that month, Ye prompted outrage by saying he would go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.”
Produced in association with Jewish News Syndicate.
(Additional reporting provided by Lennox Kalifungwa)
Edited by Alberto Arellano and Joseph Hammond
