The Right's antisemitism, out in the open
Ye, Fuentes and Trump are only the tip of the iceberg. The Right's antisemitism runs way deeper. Hold them accountable.
Well, it was bound to happen: Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, and his new Neonazi-buddy Nick Fuentes, appeared on Alex Jones’ show “Info Wars” - and Alex Jones (!) turned out to be the moderate in that conversation. Jones has peddled deeply antisemitic, racist, bigoted conspiracy myths for years - but even he knows that he has to code his anti-semitism. Which is something that Ye does not seem to be able or willing to do.
It was a truly bizarre conversation, which also laid open the dynamics between Ye and Fuentes: While Ye goes on antisemitic rants that are barely coherent sentences, Fuentes looks on and smirks. If there is a question from Jones to “clarify” one of his claims, Ye refers to Fuentes. It seems quite clear, that Fuentes is the one supplying the hateful “arguments” behind Ye’s increasing radicalization, while being smart enough to not say some of the stuff openly that Ye was spouting on Jones’ show. When Jones tried to provide some rhetorical cover by interjecting “The Nazis were thugs”, Ye answered by claiming “We gotta stop dissing the Nazis all the time”, claiming that “Hitler was born a Christian” and that he, in fact, likes him.
This latest escalation happened mere days after the now infamous meeting between Fuentes, Ye and Trump in Mar-a-Lago. Although Trump later claimed not to have known who Fuentes was, this can quite easily be debunked - you can’t simply roll up to dinner with someone who is still under the protection of the Secret Service, without being vetted and checked, not even when you’re a world-famous rapper with his Neonazi friend in tow. It’s an old tactic that Trump has employed with the likes of former KKK grand-wizard David Duke - who he had years ago spoken critically of - before: When Duke endorsed him, and Trump claimed he didn’t know who he was - but also didn’t rebuke his endorsement. Let me be clear: It is not surprising that Trump dined with the two men who might be the US’ current most prominent openly antisemitic actors on the Right (which is saying something, since there is a lot of competition). It is, nonetheless shocking. Both things can be true: We should be shocked that Trump dined with a Neonazi and someone who days later openly praised Hitler and Nazis, who had gone on foul antisemitic rants in the weeks before and understand that this is on-brand for Trump.
The guy who claimed that there were “good people on both sides” at a literal Neonazi-rally in Charlottesville which claimed the life of a young counter-protestor, is having dinner with two Neonazis, that tracks. It also tracks with Trump’s personal record on antisemitism, which is despicably long. However, we must remember not to be nonchalant about this: Trump is the current frontrunner of the GOP in 2024.
Now, if he will actually win the nomination is another question - but he currently is the clear frontrunner, no matter what the National Review editorial board may wish. Even Fuentes, however, is ready to pivot: After his dinner with Trump, he was more than happy to pledge his loyalty to Ron DeSantis, who many in the GOP secretly (and not so secretly) hope will run against Trump in 2024. Which is quite the double-bluff after he had praised Trump at the dinner, expressed his support for Trump’s 2024 run and assured him, that he would beat DeSantis - which led Trump, the current leading nominee for the GOP presidential nomination 2024 to say this about a literal neo-Nazi: “I really like this guy. He gets me”.
But it would be a catastrophic mistake to believe that the GOP’s antisemitism-problem would disappear if only Trump finally left the political stage. We hear this often, now, especially after this latest stunt: If only Trump would retire, so that a “sensible” Republican like Ron DeSantis could take the lead, then the fever would break! This is a massive miscalculation (that shows a severe lack of knowledge of the history and nature of the American Right):