Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The president of the United States had a busy weekend. When he wasn’t golfing at Mar-a-Lago, excommunicating Marjorie Taylor Greene from the MAGA movement, or executing a bizarre U-turn on the Epstein files, Donald Trump chose to plunge into shark-infested ideological waters by defending Tucker Carlson’s right to interview any damn antisemitic white supremacist he felt like interviewing, as the New York Times reported:

In late October, Mr. Carlson, a top surrogate for Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign who was given a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention last year, interviewed Mr. Fuentes on his podcast. During their discussion, Mr. Carlson attacked Republicans who closely backed Israel, calling them “Christian Zionists” who had been “seized by this brain virus.”

On Sunday, Mr. Trump, speaking of Mr. Carlson as he traveled back to the White House after spending the weekend golfing at Mar-a-Lago, said, “You can’t tell him who to interview.” The president then insisted that he “didn’t know much about” Mr. Fuentes, whom he previously dined with at Mar-a-Lago in 2022, an episode that also caused a furor.

If Mr. Carlson wanted to interview Mr. Fuentes, then “get the word out,” Mr. Trump said. “People have to decide. Ultimately people have to decide.”

Arguments over Carlson’s friendly interview with Nick Fuentes sharply divided Trump’s allies on social media, all but blew up the influential Heritage Foundation, and embarrassed Republican pols, including longtime Carlson buddy J.D. Vance. Fuentes has long been a figure at the far-right fringes of MAGA-land who arouses particular anger among Jews, Israel-loving conservative Evangelicals, and assorted normies shocked to find they are in a coalition with this happily racist dude. It was a fraught subject for Trump to address, as Axios explains:

Trump’s defense of Carlson interviewing a man labeled a white supremacist by the Justice Department puts him at odds with Republicans like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz who have condemned Carlson.

More broadly, it underscores MAGA’s divided approach toward tolerating racism, sexism and antisemitism on the far right …

Trump on Sunday finally waded into the Republican warfare after weeks of critics blasting Carlson for hosting the Holocaust denier on his podcast.

Fuentes quickly tweeted out, “Thank you, Mr. President!” As well he should: It’s hard for anyone to exclude Fuentes from the MAGA movement when its founder and unquestioned leader appears to think he is one of those “very fine people on both sides” he talked about after Fuentes joined white rioters in Charlottesville back in 2017. And in Fuentes’s wake are the so-called Groypers, a nasty breed of young transgressive activists who alternate between white-supremacist views and plain nihilism. Conservative culture warrior Rob Dreher recently quoted an estimate that “between 30 and 40% of Republican staffers in Washington under the age of 30 are followers of Fuentes.” He’s a big deal and perhaps the wave of a nightmare future.

The broader message Trump is sending to Republicans and conservatives generally should be familiar by now. While most politicians carefully balance the interests of swing and base voters in plotting their strategies, Trump always chooses the base, which he believes will have an advantage in a political environment he has worked hard to polarize. And in his ongoing conversations with his base, he has a “no enemies to the right” policy so long as the craziest of the crazies are personally loyal to him. He always offers consolation prizes to supporters who are offended by the extremists in his ranks. Jewish Republicans and their Christian allies, for example, have Trump’s unquestioned support for Israel’s war in Gaza, his reflexive Islamophobia, and his bullying of college campuses with pro-Palestinian protesters. So if they have to share a political blanket with antisemites and even neo-Nazis, it’s all in the family, and political power covers a multitude of sins.

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