Trump's former ambassador to Israel chides him for hosting anti-Semites: 'You are better than this'

Former President Donald Trump is facing harsh criticism from his former U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, and other longtime Jewish supporters, over his recent hosting of a dinner at his Florida estate.

Trump dined at Mar-a-Lago with rap star Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and Nick Fuentes, a commentator who has been labeled a white supremacist and white nationalist, and an anti-Semite.

Ye has also been accused of anti-Semitism for recent comments he has made about Jews. Trump has said that he had been blindsided, writing on his social media platform Truth Social that Ye brought Fuentes, who is known for advancing the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory of Holocaust denial as well as advocating racist ideologies, and two other guests without Trump's being aware of it. 

"This past week, Kanye West called me to have dinner at Mar-a-Lago," Trump wrote. "Shortly thereafter, he unexpectedly showed up with three of his friends, whom I knew nothing about."

"We had dinner on Tuesday evening with many members present on the back patio. The dinner was quick and uneventful. They then left for the airport," he continued. 

"To my friend Donald Trump, you are better than this," tweeted David Friedman on Friday. Friedman served as Trump's U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2017-2021. "Even a social visit from an antisemite like Kanye West and human scum like Nick Fuentes is unacceptable."

"I condemned Barak [sic] Obama associating with Louis Farrakhan and Jeremiah Wright," Friedman added. "This is no different. Antisemites deserve no quarter among American leaders, right or left."

Matt Brooks, head of the Republican Jewish Coalition, was also highly critical of Trump over the visit, telling CBS News, "We strongly condemn the virulent antisemitism of Kanye West and Nick Fuentes and call on all political leaders to reject their messages of hate and refuse to meet with him." 

Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, condemned Trump, beginning his statement by quoting the former president from his state of the union address in 2019 where he said, "We must never ignore the vile poison of anti-Semitism, or those who spread its venomous creed. With one voice, we must confront this hatred anywhere and everywhere it occurs."

Klein, who has previously honored Trump as the "greatest president ever for Israel and American Jews," has now called upon Trump to "condemn in the strongest possible terms Jew-hater Kanye West and avowed holocaust denying, white supremacist, Jew-hater Nick Fuentes."

Klein issued a release on Sunday, stating that "Trump's stirring call to the entire nation, during his 2019 State of the Union Address, to confront the vile poison of antisemitism anywhere and everywhere it occurs, and to condemn those who spread this venom, was the clearest statement ever made by a U.S. president about what we need to do to stop the dangerous horrors of Jew-hatred.

"The Zionist Organization of America calls upon President Trump to live up to his own powerful words, to condemn in the strongest possible terms Jew-hater Kanye West and avowed holocaust denying, white supremacist, Jew-hater Nick Fuentes. ZOA deplores the fact that President Trump had a friendly dinner with such vile antisemites. His dining with Jew-haters helps legitimize and mainstream antisemitism and must be condemned by everyone."

Klein also used the occasion to address former presidents Clinton, Obama and President Biden for their association with and in some cases praise for anti-Semites:

"ZOA also demands former Presidents Clinton and Obama condemn avowed antisemite Louis Farrakhan, the source of much of Kanye West's and other Jew-haters' bile."

And to Biden, he wrote that "ZOA also demands that President Biden publicly condemn overt Jew-haters Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, AOC, Betty McCollum, Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman, Ayanna Pressley, and others."