‘It’s Like F-cking Mean Girls’: Yiannopoulos Return Roils Kanye’s 2024 Campaign
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The return of alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos to Kanye West’s political team may be more sizzle than substance.
Yiannopoulos made a splash Thursday, insisting he’d been reinstated to the campaign as its “director of political operations,” and confirming that he was the author of a leaked email to Nick Fuentes purporting to “terminate” the white supremacist from any official role on the nascent Ye24 campaign.
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But a source inside the campaign tells Rolling Stone that the takeover Yiannopoulos is boasting about is “fake news” — or at least greatly exaggerated. Yiannopoulos, the source indicated, has returned to Ye’s good graces, and has the rapper’s ear. But the far-right operative has yet to be empowered by the big boss, resulting in more drama than action inside the campaign. “When Milo gets involved it’s like fucking Mean Girls,” the source tells Rolling Stone.
Reached for comment Friday, Yiannopoulos continued to present himself as top dog. “There is no such source within the Ye campaign, because the only person currently engaged on the political team is me,” he insisted.
Ye’s reps have not responded to requests to speak about the turmoil inside the campaign.
The power struggle between Fuentes and Yiannopoulos pits two noxious far-right actors against each other. Yiannopoulos is, in the words of the Anti Defamation League, a “misogynistic, racist, xenophobic, transphobic troll.” Fuentes is one of the nation’s most prominent white nationalists and a Holocaust denier, who is seeking to mainstream his brand of hate within the America First movement.
To even call Ye24 a campaign at this point is an exaggeration. The rapper has not officially declared as a candidate for president, and the Ye24.com website is decidedly under construction. Whatever skeletal infrastructure exists for an anticipated run is being supported by the remains of the Kanye 2020 campaign.
FEC disclosures, updated through March, indicate that Kanye 2020 has made two payments of $10,000 to Fuentes this year for “archival services,” while also reimbursing the Groyper leader for nearly $10,000 in travel expenses.
The source asserts that Ye has not dismissed Fuentes, who has allegedly been informed by Ye in recent days that he’ll be kept on as a paid senior adviser to the campaign. For now, Fuentes also remains in control of the Ye24 website. Concerns have also been raised with Ye that Yiannopoulos’ notorious history — which includes a public defense of pedophilia — could hamper any campaign going forward.
The power struggle can be seen most directly in a spat about money. Yiannopoulos’ efforts to seize control over campaign finances have yet to be backed up by Ye, the source says, leaving the funds in limbo. But this has not stopped Yiannopoulos from billing the campaign for his services, the source contends. Yiannopoulos did not respond to these specific allegations. A message to the Kanye 2020 treasurer was not immediately returned.
High drama is nothing new in this far-right political campaign. Last year — advised by a toxic trio of Fuentes, Yiannopoulos, and “Stop the Steal” founder Alexander Ali — Ye launched a notorious antisemitic blitz that culminated in the rapper declaring his love for Hitler on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ InfoWars broadcast.
Ye and Fuentes also dined with president Trump at Mar-a-Lago, a move that Yiannopoulos bragged he orchestrated “to make Trump’s life miserable.” About that time, Yiannopoulos was axed from the campaign, but was ultimately paid $40,000 in mid-December for what the Kanye 2020 organization listed as “campaign wrap up services.”
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