Jake Turx is a newly minted White House correspondent for a publication that has never before had a seat in the White House press corps: Ami Magazine, an Orthodox Jewish weekly based in Brooklyn. He is a singular presence in the briefing room: a young Hasidic Jew with side curls tucked behind his ears and a skullcap embroidered with his Twitter handle.
I don't think its any accident Trump treated reporters Jake Turx, Jim Acosta, and April Ryan like trash at his press conference. His supporters saw him doing what they would love to do to Jews, Blacks, and Latinos: being a complete douchebag.
“However,” Mr. Turx continued, “what we are concerned about and what we haven’t really heard being addressed is an uptick in anti-Semitism and how the government is planning to take care of it. There’s been a report out that 48 bomb threats have been made against Jewish centers all across the country in the last couple of weeks. There are people committing anti-Semitic acts or threatening to——”
At that, Mr. Trump interrupted, saying it was “not a fair question.”
“Sit down,” the president commanded. “I understand the rest of your question.”
As Mr. Turx took his seat, Mr. Trump said, “So here’s the story, folks. No. 1, I am the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life. No. 2, racism, the least racist person.”
Mr. Turx tried to interject, realizing how the encounter had turned. He said he had wanted to clarify that he in no way meant to accuse Mr. Trump of anti-Semitism but instead intended to ask what his administration could do to stop the anti-Semitic incidents.
But Mr. Trump would not let him speak again, saying, “Quiet, quiet, quiet.” As Mr. Turx shook his head with an incredulous look on his face, Mr. Trump accused him of having lied that his question would be straight and simple.
Mr. Trump said, “I find it repulsive. I hate even the question because people that know me. …”
He went on to say that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, during his visit to the United States on Wednesday, had vouched for Mr. Trump as a good friend of Israel and the Jewish people and no anti-Semite.
Mr. Trump concluded that Mr. Turx should have relied on Mr. Netanyahu’s endorsement, “instead of having to get up and ask a very insulting question like that.”
So, Trump gets a question about what he's going to do about all the nazi shit going on out there. He, of course, ignores that and thinks he's being called anti-semite. Then he says, basically, shut up all my best friends are Jews. That's on top of thinking April Ryan knows all Black people everywhere and its now her job to arrange meetings with them for Trump. Shut up... Omarosa is Black.
Which, you know, is fine. I'm not outraged about that part, no matter how informative. Anybody could have seen this coming as Trump made only perfunctory effort to hide his white supremacist soul. The outrageous part is that Orthodox communities voted for Trump overwhelmingly. When asked what he would do about attacks against Jews, the response was absolutely nothing.
I suppose Jake Turx could do what Donald Trump wants, which is praise him, love him, and so on. But I hope he uses this opportunity to educate the Orthodox Community voters: you're not immune to Donald Trump's contempt.
mobile.nytimes.com/…
forward.com/...