Former US President Donald Trump distanced himself from the criticism of the dinner with the rapper Kanye West and the supporter of white supremacy Nick Fuentes.

On Truth Social, Trump called the rapper a "seriously troubled man who also happens to be black" and added that West "has always been good to him."

"So I'm helping a man who's in serious trouble, who happens to be black, who's ruined at his job, and pretty much everything else, and who's always been good to me. I accepted his request for a private meeting, to give him the necessary advice. "He showed up with three people, two of whom I didn't know, and the third is a politician I haven't seen in years," Trump claimed.

"I told him not to run, it's a complete waste of time – he can't win." "Fake news is a madhouse," added the former US president.

Trump's statements come after sharp backlash from many on the right over his meeting with Fuentes, who in the past has denied the Holocaust and supported the concept of segregation in the American South. Like West, he often uses anti-Jewish rhetoric and has openly said he wants to turn the modern American conservative movement toward anti-Semitism.

Even a former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned the move, though he did not directly name Trump or West.

"Anti-Semitism is a cancer. As Secretary of State, I fought against the funding of anti-Semitic organizations. We stand with the Jewish people in the fight against the oldest bigotry in the world," Pompeo wrote on Twitter.