Former President Trump’s campaign is increasing its vetting protocols following his widely criticized dinner with white nationalist Nick Fuentes, sources told The Associated Press.
A senior campaign official will be present with Trump at all times, one of the sources said.
Fuentes attended a dinner at Mar-a-Lago last week with Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West. Ye was set to have a private dinner with the former president, but arrived with three guests, one of whom was Fuentes, Trump has said.
Fuentes and Ye were driven to the estate by Karen Giorno, a former Trump campaign adviser from Florida, according to NBC News, which also reported screening at Mar-a-Lago will be increased. The network noted that Giorno said she used a credit card to prove her identity since she had forgotten her driver’s license and said she was waved in because she had Ye in the car and was herself a frequent visitor at Mar-a-Lago.
Only Ye had been on the security list, according to the AP.
Trump has faced immense backlash over his visit with Fuentes.
“There is no room in the Republican Party for antisemitism or white supremacy and anyone meeting with people advocating that point of view, in my judgment, [is] highly unlikely to ever be elected president of the United States,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Tuesday.
The former president has claimed he “had no idea” about Fuentes’s views.
“I had never heard of the man — I had no idea what his views were, and they weren’t expressed at the table in our very quick dinner, or it wouldn’t have been accepted,” Trump told Fox News Digital.