Netanyahu calls Trump’s meeting with West, Fuentes ‘wrong and misplaced’
Returning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised former President Donald Trump Wednesday for his contributions to Israel, but said the former president’s decision to dine with disgraced rapper Kanye West and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago last week was “wrong and misplaced.”
“I condemned Kanye West’s anti-Semitic statements. Straight away, I thought that was just wrong and misplaced,” Netanyahu said in an interview published Wednesday on the website “Common Sense.”
“And I think that that’s what I would say about President Trump’s decision to dine with this person. I think is wrong and misplaced. I think it’s a mistake. He shouldn’t do that,” he said.
Later in the interview with former New York Times editorial board member Bari Weiss, the 73-year-old Netanyahu described the 76-year-old Trump as “irreverent.”
But the Israeli leader, who earlier this month defeated former Prime Minister Yair Lapid and is expected to return to the head of government for a third time, said he was “unabashedly appreciative” of what Trump did for the Jewish state during his four years in office.
“So I think he made a mistake. I hope it’s not repeated. That’s all I can tell you,” Netanyahu said.
”He did great things for Israel in recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, long overdue, given that it happened 3,000 years ago under King David. He moved the American embassy there. He recognized our sovereignty on the Golan Heights, from which we were attacked for years by Syria,” he added.
“He got out of this dangerous Iran deal, and I appreciate all that it doesn’t take away from. Also, you know, he’s been very supportive of the Jewish people.”
The 45th president has come under fire for breaking bread with West, now called “Ye,” and Fuentes at his exclusive Florida estate on Nov. 22, two days before Thanksgiving.
Trump, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, claimed that West had been seeking a meeting with him and brought Fuentes along when he came to dine at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump insisted that he did not know Fuentes, who attended the violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017, helped organize some “Stop the Steal” events before Jan. 6, 2021, and released a video in 2019 suggesting that six million Jews did not die in the Holocaust.
After being roasted for several days for hosting the two men, Trump lashed out at West on his Truth Social media platform, calling him a “seriously troubled man, who just happens to be black.”
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