Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Trump lashes out at ‘Jewish leaders’ for ‘lack of loyalty’ to him

Former president posted article defending his dinner with anti-semitic rapper Kanye West

Oliver O'Connell
New York
Saturday 10 December 2022 13:03 GMT
Comments
Netanyahu says Trump should condemn antisemitism after Kanye dinner

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Former President Donald Trump hit out at “Jewish leaders” for a “lack of loyalty” to him in a post on Truth Social on Friday morning, saying “they should be ashamed of themselves”.

Posting a link to an article in The Gateway Pundit by Wayne Allyn Root, defending him from the outrage sparked by his dinner at Mar-a-Lago with antisemitic rapper Kanye West and white nationalist Nick Fuentes, Mr Trump thanked the author.

He wrote: “Thank you Wayne – You are great but how quickly Jewish Leaders forgot that I was the best, by far, President for Israel. They should be ashamed of themselves. This lack of loyalty to their greatest friends and allies is why large numbers in Congress, and so many others, have stopped giving support to Israel.”

In his article, Mr Root railed against former President Barack Obama and lauded Mr Trump.

“While president, Trump did more for the state of Israel and the Jewish people than anyone in history,” wrote Mr Root. “He risked his career and political standing to always support Israel, through thick and thin. In Israel, Trump is beloved. Israelis have named streets, train stations and soccer teams after Trump.”

He went on to blame the liberal media’s “love” of Mr Obama and hatred of Mr Trump for the current outrage over the latter’s dinner with West and Fuentes.

Mr Root described the pair respectively as a “celebrity acquaintance” and “a stranger”.

“The media, Democrats and the RINO establishment GOP are trying to destroy Trump over a brief dinner. With a stranger,” he writes, going on to claim “mentally disturbed” West set Mr Trump up for his own political ambitions and the story is “gaslighting”.

West, an acclaimed rapper now going by the name Ye who recently torpedoed his music career by launching into a string of bizarre antisemitic rants on social media, causing his commercial sponsors to desert him in droves, has previously sought out Mr Trump at Trump Tower in New York City and at the White House during his presidency on a whim.

Now plotting a hopelessly unlikely presidential run in 2024 – theoretically pitching him against Mr Trump – West again sought out the one-term president and former luxury real estate magnate, this time for advice on that project.

They sat down to dinner at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday 22 November with another man in attendance, the notorious white nationalist and Holocaust-denier Mr Fuentes, whom Mr Trump has subsequently claimed not to have previously known or recognised.

Mr Fuentes is best known for his livestreams on which he rants about topics including supposed Jewish control of the global system, for picketing the annual Conservative Political Action Conference for being insufficiently extreme and for launching his own rival summit, where he has hosted Maga Republicans including Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in