Donald Trump has finally chosen a side in the feud that has been tearing his MAGA base apart for months.
The 79-year-old president had until now kept suspiciously quiet amid a bitter debate about whether the MAGA coalition should include antisemitic figures and hate-mongers such as Nick Fuentes.
But he appears to have partly taken a stand this week, telling The New York Times on Wednesday, “I think we don’t need them,” when asked whether such people had a place in his coalition.
He added, “I think we don’t like them.”
Trump boasted about his support for Israel and referred to his daughter, Ivanka Trump, 44, who converted to Judaism before marrying Jared Kushner in 2009.
“My daughter happens to be Jewish, beautiful, three grandchildren are Jewish,” he said. “I’m very proud of them. I’m very proud of the whole, that whole family. I am the least antisemitic person probably there is anywhere in the world.”
However, the Times reported that Trump stopped short of condemning several of the most prominent figures in the MAGA civil war, claiming he didn’t know Fuentes, 27, despite having dinner with him and Kanye West at his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022.
“I had dinner with him, one time, where he came as a guest of Kanye West,” he said. “I didn’t know who he was bringing. He said, ‘Do you mind if I bring a friend?’ I said, ‘I don’t care.’ And it was Nick Fuentes? I don’t know Nick Fuentes.”
The debate over antisemitism in the Republican party erupted in October, after Tucker Carlson hosted Fuentes—a Holocaust denying white nationalist—for a softball interview on his podcast.
At the time, Trump defended Carlson, 56, and appeared to encourage the platforming of Fuentes’s extreme views.
“I mean, if he wants to interview Nick Fuentes, I don’t know much about him, but if he wants to do it, get the word out, let him,” Trump said. “You know, people have to decide. Ultimately, people have to decide.”
Fuentes, who has said that he “loves” Adolf Hitler and has been associated with violent extremist groups, took Trump’s remark as an endorsement.
“Thank you Mr. President,” he later posted on X.
Trump on Wednesday also denied knowing Paul Ingrassia, whom he nominated to lead the Office of Special Counsel in May, but was later withdrawn after a leaked group chat revealed he wrote about having a “Nazi streak,” among other vile text messages.
Despite the scandal, Trump later appointed Ingrassia, 30, deputy general counsel at the General Services Administration.
“I have thousands of people working here,” he told the Times.
And while Trump may have taken a partial stand against antisemites, Vice President JD Vance offered a contrasting message at Turning Point USA’s annual gathering last month, when he said the Republican party did not need “purity tests.”
“We have far more important work to do than canceling each other,” Vance, 41, said at the event, which was marked by infighting among the warring MAGA factions.
