Trump says he had no idea his dinner guest was a notorious Holocaust denier

Former President Donald Trump hosted notorious Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes for dinner this week -- but now he's issued a statement saying he had no idea who Fuentes was before sharing a meal with him.

In a statement posted by Axios' Jonathan Swan, Trump emphasized that Fuentes was a guest of rapper Kanye West and not someone whom he'd personally invited to his resort.

"Kanye West very much wanted to visit Mar-a-Lago," Trump said. "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 notably did not condemn Fuentes' views about the Holocaust or his belief that America should reinstate racial segregation.

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Additionally, Trump did say that he invited West to dinner with him despite the fact that West has drawn outrage in recent weeks by spouting openly anti-Semitic rhetoric, starting with a tweet last month in which he threatened to go "death-con 3 on Jewish people."

Trump has a long history of refusing to condemn the behavior of overt racists while also denying that he knows their true views, such as when he said in 2016 he did not know former Klan leader David Duke's views well enough to justify disavowing his support.