Trump under fire for dinner with white supremacist Fuentes

Former US President Donald Trump has stirred up controversy after hosting a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Tuesday.

In attendance was the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who has been criticized for making anti-Semitic remarks.

Just days into his third campaign for the White House, Trump had dinner with West on Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago club.

West, who is now known as "Ye," was accompanied by Nick Fuentes, a far-right activist with a history of making racist and anti-Semitic remarks using his online platforms. Fuentes has even had his YouTube channel suspended for violating hate speech guidelines.

In recent weeks, Ye had had his social media accounts suspended after making a series of antisemitic comments .

White House slams meeting 

Trump's meeting with West and Fuentes prompted condemnation from the White House on Saturday. 

In a statement, spokesman Andrew Bates said "bigotry, hate, and antisemitism have absolutely no place in America – including at Mar-A-Lago. Holocaust denial is repugnant and dangerous, and it must be forcefully condemned."

Even some of Trump's supporters criticized the meeting. 

''To my friend Donald Trump, you are better than this. Even a social visit from an anti-Semite like Kanye West and human scum like Nick Fuentes is unacceptable," David Friedman, who served as Trump's ambassador to Israel, wrote in a tweet.

How has Trump responded?

Trump, who is just days into his third campaign for president said in a series of statements that he had never heard of Fuentes before the dinner. 

"Kanye West very much wanted to visit Mar-a-Lago. Our dinner meeting was intended to be Kanye and me only, but he arrived with a guest whom I had never met and knew nothing about," Trump said.

"We got along great, he expressed no anti-Semitism, and I appreciated all of the nice things he said about me on 'Tucker Carlson,''' Trump posted on his social media account platform. "Why wouldn't I agree to meet?' he added. 

mf/wmr(AP, AFP)