While influential members of the American Jewish community are busy battling against pro-Palestinian college demonstrators chanting anti-Israel statements that arguably cross the line to become anti-Jewish, they are largely ignoring the real antisemitic threat in the United States – Donald Trump and rightwing white nationalist who want a Christian America.
Trump’s most recent outrageous statements include claiming that Kamala Harris “doesn’t like Jewish people” (her husband and stepchildren are Jewish) and his charge that if he loses the 2024 election it will because of Jews. Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive officer of the Anti-Defamation League, responded to Trump that his statements about Jews “increases their sense of alienation in a moment of vulnerability.” Greenblatt believes “this speech likely will spark more hostility and further inflame an already bad situation.” Meanwhile, Matthew Brooks, head of the Republican Jewish Coalition, dismissed the Trump threat claiming it was only “Trump being Trump.”
Brooks is right. Antisemitic troupes and cozying up to antisemites are just “Trump being Trump.” Brooks needs to learn a little Jewish history. In the 1930s there were some German Jews who initially believed Hitler would benefit Germany and Jews would not be at risk. It was just “Hitler being Hitler.” Captain Leo Löwenstein, President of Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten, the Jewish War Veterans Association, expected Hitler to honor Jewish veterans who fought during the first World War. Centralverein, the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith, and Jüdische Rundschau, the Jewish Review, proposed a wait-and-see approach hoping to influence the Nazi regime.
In her 1963 book on Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt identified Leo Baeck, a reform rabbi, as a leading Nazi accommodationist who first tried to negotiate with the Nazi regime and later, after he was sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, headed its Council of Elders, the Judenrat, which meant he received better accommodations and food.
Donald Trump has always cozied up to antisemites and repeated antisemitic troupes. He praises the rioters who attacked the United States Capitol building on January 6, 2021 as patriots and pledges to issue pardons to convicted criminals. Many of these “patriots” wore clothing with antisemitic slogans or had histories of making antisemitic statements. According to retired Marine Corps General John Kelly, a former Trump Chief of Staff, Trump praised Adolf Hitler for doing “some good things.”
In 2013, in an effort to delegitimize criticism of Trump by Daily Show host Jon Stewart as a Jew, Trump tweeted “I promise you that I’m much smarter than Jonathan Leibowitz — I mean Jon Stewart @TheDailyShow. Who, by the way, is totally overrated.”
In a 2015 speech in Washington to the Republican Jewish Coalition, Trump repeated traditional anti-Jewish stereotypes saying, “You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money” and “Is there anyone in this room who doesn’t negotiate deals? Probably more than any room I’ve ever spoken.”
During the 2016 Presidential contest, Trump tweeted an image of Hillary Clinton with a background of dollars and with the caption imbedded in a six-point Jewish star. Trump claimed
“That’s not a Star of David. That’s just a star.” When rightwing MAGA attacked Jewish journalist Julia Ioffe and made “anti-Semitic death threats” because of an essay she wrote critical of his third wife, Trump repeatedly refused to condemn the antisemitic diatribes. During the campaign Trump only disavowed an endorsement by white supremacist and Klan leader David Duke because of an intense backlash.
The Times of Israel was uncomfortable with Trump’s foreign policy slogan “America First. The Israeli journal explained that the slogan was championed prior to U.S. entry into World War II by notorious antisemite Henry Ford and German apologist Charles Lindbergh. When confronted, Trump either claimed he did not know about any antisemitic intent or that he was not responsible for things said by his supporters.
While President, Trump continued to make statements that can only be understood as antisemitic. In August 2017, Trump sparked outrage when he announced there were “very fine people on both sides” following the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia where marchers chanted “Jews will not replace us!” At a 2018 White House Hanukah observance, Trump told Jewish attendees that Israel was “your country.”
In 2020, the Republican Party originally schedule a supporter of QAnon who claimed the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was an authentic document to speak at the party’s national convention where it hoped to propel Trump into a second term. Trump claimed he was unfamiliar with QAnon, a standard Trump excuse, and that believers in QAnon are “people that love our country” and he appreciated their support. On Twitter, Trump reposted posts by QAnon adherents over 300 times. In October 2022, Trump demanded greater fealty to Trump because “no president” had done more for Israel than he did. He argued that Christian evangelicals were “far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith.”
In his post-Presidential years, Trump has dined with notorious antisemites Kanye West (a/k/a Ye) and Nick Fuentes. On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump claimed that he “never knew and knew nothing about” Fuentes and West and he “got along great, he expressed no anti-Semitism, & I appreciated all of the nice things he said about me on ‘Tucker Carlson’.”
In a 2023 Rosh Hashanah post on Truth Social, Trump wished Jews a happy New Year and in the same post accused “liberal Jews” of voting “to destroy America & Israel because you believe false narratives.”
Trump a convicted felon, adulterer, liar, and serial abuser of women claims to be a “very proud Christian.” Trump’s rightwing allies are ramping up efforts to have the United States declared a Christian nation. They want official recognition that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and their “Christian values” to be be championed by the federal government and honored in public life. Trump has repeatedly promised that if he is elected, he will protect Christianity iconography, from a communist radical left threat that wants to “tear down crosses” and “stamp out the churches . . . no one will be touching the cross of Christ under the Trump administration, I swear to you.”
What happens if Trump somehow becomes President of the United States again? I believe Jews will definitely be at risk. Trump has called for the militarization of police, setting up detention camps for unwanted immigrants, and mass deportations. Undocumented immigrants, not Jews, are Trump’s initial target. But Trump has also promised to use his power as President to arrest and punish his political enemies, something he tried without success during his earlier Presidency. American Jews are foolish if they think Trump and his empowered allies will not find a reason to turn on them.
