Kanye West went to Mar-A- Lago for a meeting with Former President Donald Trump. West recently announced that he will be running for U.S president again after a failed attempt in 2020. West has also announced that he asked Trump to be his running mate for his next run. Trump’s answer to this question is unknown with Trump himself being speculated to run for the presidency once again.
Whilst En route to Mar-A-Lago, West was spotted with the far-right commentator Nicholas Fuentes. This means that it was likely that Fuentes was in attendance for this meeting. Fuentes is the host of his own show America First, in which he livestreams himself talking about news events. Fuentes was banned from YouTube in February 2020 after violating YouTube’s hate speech policy. Fuentes was in attendance of the storming of the U.S Capitol on January 6th, 2021, although he himself did not enter the capitol he was giving speeches that day in support of Trump’s claims of the 2020 election being fraudulent.
Fuentes rose to prominence in right wing circles in late 2019, after he led his fans, who are known as “Groypers”, to ask provocative questions at a Turning Point USA Q&A titled “Culture War”. Fuentes views himself as a dissident figure on the right so he led his fans in this Q&A in order to challenge what he perceives as the right-wing mainstream. Questions asked by his supporters featured the spreading of the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory.
What does a meeting between these 3 people mean?
Potentially this could cause the campaigns of both Trump and Kanye to lean further right than what their previous campaigns were. As if Fuentes can influence the policy decisions it could see a harsher stance on LGBTQ+ and Womens rights as well as tougher restrictions on immigration. Fuentes has repeatedly stated that he believes gay marriage is illegitimate, women should have no access to abortions and has also declared the need for the U.S to declare a moratorium (a complete ban on having anyone migrate to the country).
It is more likely that a campaign from Kanye West would come under greater influence from Fuentes. Trump is now more integrated with the republican establishment who will give greater resistance to Fuentes’ ideology. West’s campaign already has been influenced by the right-wing online sphere with far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos coming in for his campaign, with the former Breitbart News editor already working on the plans.
“This is Milo right here, working on the campaign,” Ye said in the video, which was posted by the Twitter account PatriotTakes.
