Why Trump’s Dinner with Nick Fuentes Requires a New Journalistic Approach

The dinner shouldn’t have happened. The lack of condemnation is worse. The way journalists will cover it is the biggest problem.

Jamie Cohen
5 min readNov 28, 2022

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A screen grab from Ye’s 2024 presidential announcement video featuring racist antisemite Nick Fuentes on a bullhorn. The caption reads #YE24 and posted from Kanye’s Twitter account.

“You have no choice. Not your body, not your choice. Your body is mine, and you’re having my baby.”

These words were screamed by a man wearing an FDNY fleece from the steps of the Old St. Patrick Cathedral in downtown Manhattan, the morning of May 7, 2022. The other men in attendance, holding rosaries, were wearing blue America First hats were protesting against Planned Parenthood, just days after the Supreme Court had leaked its plans to undo Roe vs. Wade and permanently set back women’s rights in the United States.

Several men in dark clothing and blue America First hats protest on the steps of Old St Patricks Cathedral in New York City. The caption reads: “You have no choice. Not your body, not your choice. Your body is mine, and you’re having my baby.”
https://twitter.com/ScooterCasterNY/status/1522977925976449025

These men weren’t your typical protesters (or FDNY members), they were part of Nick Fuentes’ Groyper Army, a tight knit collection of misogynist, holocaust-denying, Christian Nationalist, racist bigots who believe themselves to be “heirs to conservatism.” Their entire ideology is based on what Fuentes says is a “traditionalist, Christian, conservative, reformist, American Nationalist” movement.

Last week, Trump met with Ye, (formerly known as Kanye) and hate-filled human-scum podcaster Nick Fuentes as Ye, who has been falling apart publicly for weeks, decided to tell Trump that he’d be running for president in 2024. While Ye told his audience Trump screamed at him, Trump told his audience it was an uneventful dinner and he didn’t know who Fuentes was. Since both parties are notorious liars, it’s not possible to discern the truth.

A tweet from Robert Costa that reads: Having tracked Fuentes for years, let me note this as a reporter: he is well-known inside the GOP. People can pretend otherwise but professionals who work in the party are highly aware of how his white supremacy and anti-Semitism influences some voters, esp on fringe platforms.
https://twitter.com/costareports/status/1596344949490188288

But Fuentes isn’t your typical dinner guest. He’s not even your typical human for that matter. He’s a representative and leader of some of the internet’s deepest, and most vile users. Fuentes, who has been banned from every social media platform — though Elon will likely let him back on his shitty meme and racism…

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Jamie Cohen

Digital culture expert and meme scholar. Cultural and Media Studies PhD. Internet studies educator: social good, civic engagement and digital literacies