President Trump said that neither the Republican Party nor the MAGA movement had room for people with antisemitic views, his most direct public statement yet in a debate pulsing through his movement over the inclusion of supporters who spread hate.
“I think we don’t need them,” he said on Wednesday during an interview with The New York Times, when asked whether such people had a place in his coalition. “I think we don’t like them.”
After years in which Mr. Trump has variously embraced and tolerated far-right figures and groups, the Republican Party is mired in a debate about how expansive its coalition should be and whether it should include figures like Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier and avowed antisemite. Mr. Trump’s comments stand in contrast to Vice President JD Vance, who said last month that the party did not need “purity tests.”
“I didn’t bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to deplatform,” Mr. Vance said at Turning Point USA’s annual gathering, AmericaFest.
He added: “We have far more important work to do than canceling each other.”
In a subsequent blog interview, Mr. Vance played down Mr. Fuentes’s influence in the party and condemned antisemitism. But Mr. Trump seemed to draw a much clearer line than his vice president in his interview with The Times, rejecting antisemitic supporters.
Factions of the party are also fighting over how much support to give to Israel, of which conservatives for decades had been unwavering supporters. Mr. Trump’s coalition has started to splinter over how much support the United States should provide to Israel, but the president has repeatedly bragged about his support for Israel. In the interview with The Times, Mr. Trump spoke about the recent prize he was awarded by Israel and referred to his Jewish family members.
“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.”
And yet, Mr. Trump did not specifically condemn some of the most high-profile people at the center of the debate. When asked about Mr. Fuentes, the president said he did not know him. When reminded by a reporter that he had dinner with Mr. Fuentes in 2022 at Mar-a-Lago, his private estate and club in Florida, the president brushed it off.
“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.”
Mr. Fuentes is far from the only one associated with Mr. Trump’s movement who has spread antisemitism, but the president seemed hesitant to denounce anyone by name. When asked about Paul Ingrassia, who works in the Trump administration and wrote in leaked text messages that he had a “Nazi streak,” Mr. Trump said he did not know him.
“I have thousands of people working here,” he said.
In May, Mr. Trump nominated Mr. Ingrassia to lead the Office of Special Counsel, but the White House withdrew the nomination after Republican opposition in the Senate over the leaked text messages. Mr. Ingrassia is now the general counsel of the General Services Administration.
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In his second term, Mr. Trump has led a crackdown on universities, accusing them of spreading antisemitism and punishing them by abruptly withdrawing billions of dollars in research funding. But critics of the president contended that Mr. Trump’s actions fell short of combating antisemitism and blamed him for spreading it. He has expressed admiration from some aspects of Hitler’s leadership, dined with a Holocaust denier and, at times, ignored when Jews are the subject of violent attacks.
The debate over antisemitism in the Republican Party broke into the open in October after Tucker Carlson hosted a friendly interview with Mr. Fuentes. In the conversation, Mr. Carlson assailed Republicans who strongly back Israel, calling them “Christian Zionists” who had been “seized by this brain virus.” Many Republicans criticized Mr. Carlson for not challenging Mr. Fuentes during the interview.
But Mr. Trump defended Mr. Carlson, as did Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative think tank. Mr. Roberts’s video standing by Mr. Carlson prompted multiple members of the foundation’s governing board to resign.
The debate over the Republican Party’s coalition comes as Mr. Vance and other Republican leaders jockey to position themselves as Mr. Trump’s successor. Mr. Trump has repeatedly praised Mr. Vance and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, though Mr. Rubio has said he will not run for president if Mr. Vance does.
In the interview with The Times, the president said it was “far too early” to wade into conversations about whom he might support in the 2028 Republican primary.
“We have three years and one month left, but he’s doing a great job,” he said when asked what it would take for Mr. Vance to win his endorsement. “Marco is doing a great job.”
Mr. Trump said he relied on both Mr. Vance and Mr. Rubio
“I don’t want to do that, but they do have different, they have great strengths, but somewhat different, but they’re great,” he said. “They’re both doing a great job.”
He added: “I couldn’t be happier with either.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Katie Rogers and David E. Sanger contributed reporting.
Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
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