Trump got conned by an incel and a Holocaust denier: Straight Up with Tiana Lowe
Tiana Lowe
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Since dining with Holocaust deniers Nick Fuentes and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, former President Donald Trump’s odds of a second term of the presidency, according to the betting markets, have tumbled to below those of President Joe Biden. Reigning supreme remains Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor seen as the Republican Party’s best hope to flatten Trump in a primary.
DON’T FALL FOR THE NICK FUENTES SIDESHOW
Trump’s primary political failure in the infamous Mar-a-Lago dinner was not, in fact, dining with a pair of flagrant antisemites. It’s rather that Trump let himself be conned by a mentally ill man almost surely in the throes of bipolar hypomania and an alt-right troll who has deemed America “the evil empire” and proudly equated himself to Hitler.
Trump says he doesn’t know Fuentes, and the closest he has come to condemning the involuntary celibate misogynist is telling Fox News that Fuentes didn’t express “his views” during the pre-Thanksgiving dinner and that they “wouldn’t have been accepted.” (Unsurprisingly, Trump reserved more condemnation for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who roundly lambasted association with the cretinous Fuentes.)
As usual, Trump has postured himself as the victim here, but even if he had no idea that Fuentes was an unhinged bigot, he knew exactly who West was. Pro tip: An easy way to avoid dining with the antisemite whom you don’t know is to not invite the antisemite you do know.
The political problem here isn’t Trump’s willingness to overlook the bigotry of select and often sycophantic companions. The former president has already made abundantly clear that even if he is not a racist or a bigot, he’d rather not bend over backward to condemn the praise of David Duke or bloodshed by white nationalists in Charlottesville. Rather, Trump’s real crisis is that the old man got played within a fortnight of announcing his (third) presidential campaign, and he looks like a senile simpleton as a result.
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Tune in to the latest episode of the Washington Examiner’s new series, Straight Up with Tiana Lowe, to hear about the greater implications for Trump’s 2024 odds and more.