Former President Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate Israel” and hate “their religion,” igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.
Trump, in an interview, had been asked about Democrats’ growing criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his handling of the war in Gaza as the civilian death toll continues to mount.
“I actually think they hate Israel,” Trump responded to his former aide, Sebastian Gorka. “I think they hate Israel. And the Democrat party hates Israel.”
Trump, who last week became the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, went on to charge: “Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion. They hate everything about Israel and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed.”
The comments sparked immediate backlash from the White House, President Joe Biden’s campaign and some Jewish leaders. The vast majority of Jewish Americans identify as Democrats, but Trump has often accused them of disloyalty, perpetuating what his foes say is an antisemitic trope.
At the White House, spokesperson Andrew Bates cast the comments as “vile and unhinged Antisemitic rhetoric” without mentioning Trump by name.
“As Antisemitic crimes and acts of hate have increased across the world — among them the deadliest attack committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust — leaders have an obligation to call hate what it is and bring Americans together against it,” he said. “There is no justification for spreading toxic, false stereotypes that threaten fellow citizens. None.”
Biden’s campaign said, “The only person who should be ashamed here is Donald Trump.”
“Trump is going to lose again this November because Americans are sick of his hateful resentment, personal attacks, and extreme agenda,” said spokesman James Singer.
Jonathan Greenblatt, who heads the Anti-Defamation League, said, “Accusing Jews of hating their religion because they might vote for a particular party is defamatory & patently false.”
“Serious leaders who care about the historic US-Israel alliance should focus on strengthening, rather than unraveling, bipartisan support for the State of Israel,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Trump’s comments come as Biden has been facing mounting pressure from the anti-Israel wing of his party over his administration’s support for Israel in its retaliatory offensive in Gaza.
While Biden continues to back Israel’s right to defend itself, he has increasingly criticized Netanyahu. He has accused Netanyahu of “hurting Israel more than helping Israel,” saying, “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.”
Trump took particular issue with recent comments from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the country’s highest-ranking Jewish official. In a speech last week, Schumer sharply criticized Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza, warning that the civilian toll was damaging Israel’s standing around the world. He also called for Israel to hold new elections.
While the White House formally distanced itself from Schumer’s comments, the Democratic leader and key ally was voicing an opinion increasingly held across Biden’s administration.
Schumer — whom Trump accused of being “very anti-Israel now” — responded by accusing Trump of “making highly partisan and hateful rants.”
“To make Israel a partisan issue only hurts Israel and the US-Israeli relationship,” he wrote on X.
The Pew Research Center reported in 2021 that Jews are “among the most consistently liberal and Democratic groups in the U.S.,” with 7 in 10 Jewish adults identifying with or leaning toward the Democratic Party. In 2020, it found that nearly three-quarters of American Jews disapproved of Trump’s performance as president, with just 27% rating him positively.
Americans have also increasingly soured on Israel’s military operation in Gaza, according to surveys from The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. In January, 50% of U.S. adults said the military response from Israel in the Gaza Strip had gone too far, up from 40% in November.
That number was higher among Democrats, 6 in 10 of whom said the same thing in both surveys.
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29 Responses
You don’t need him to tell you that
If it wasn’t true previously it certainly is true now.
I’m not sure that I disagree with Pres. Trump totally. Maybe I wouldn’t use the word ‘hate’ …. but to his point, how can anyone that ‘loves’ their religion – in other words anyone that is a shomer Torah u’Mitzvos and how can anyone that ‘loves’ Israel – in other words cares about the strategic Israel- US relationship then go out and vote for a Democrat, especially for president. Obviously there maybe an exception on a local level as we saw with Avi Schnall who was overwhelmingly supported to gain his seat in Trenton..
If any one is antisemetic it is the Biden administration. They are Obama 2.1
How can one vote for a person like this who has a narcissistic personal disorder thinking only about himself?
Reb E because his track record on Israel is better than Bidens. Biden emboldened the Palestinians by giving Hamas “Palestinian aid”
Thanks for Trump showing himself for being a total idiot.
This time you can’t parse the word “bloodbath.”
His statement is so foolish that I find it hard to believe that people actually agree with him.
Voting for one party in America does not mean that you hate Israel or your religion.
This is why he will lose again in November and be in jail for the rest of his life . Because he cannot control himself.
Trump and Biden are both in similar boats.
Biden wants the traditional Democratic coalition which includes most persons of Jewish descent, as well as the “Progressive” (WOKE) faction which approves of Hamas and sees anti-Semitism as good policy.
Trump may be willing to offer moral support to Israel and be critical of anti-Semitism, but he appears (subject to change, something Trump is good at) to be supporting an “America First” foreign policy which precluded entanglement in foreign wars which limits the support or aid he could offer Israel.
Of course by the election, all this may change. The Democrats might simply denounce their WOKE wing (on the theory they won’t vote for Trump, and dumping the WOKE Democrats will let Biden appeal to Republicans who object to Trump and/or his policies). Trump may redefine “America First” to say that the US should lead the free world in helping countries defend themselves, or start heaping praise (and offering material support, including troops) on those countries who are fighting for their own freedom rather than expecting America to protect them.
@Reb Eliezer
For something as crucial as this- it shouldn’t be a popularity contest.
Any sane person would choose the genius with a proven track record, despite his narcissistic personality disorder, over a senile pervert who was wrong on every single important decision over the past half century (who, by the way only cares about himself but isn’t as open about it).
Only a laszlo would think differently.
Where are all the Jews who found the ability to make videos and letters against Schumer now ? Let them publicize now how they will never vote for the madman Trump.
While not a big Trump supporter, kudos to him for speaking the truth!! And to the comment above about certain individuals who gain office through the Democratic party its simply about the money everything is justified because of the 💰 . We sit silent while perversity reigns supreme because we are getting funding. It’s a shame on us all!!
How right he is.
He is right.
He happens to be right, there is alot of Jews voting for Democrats, now what it use to be a Democrat party is gone, they are all bad people, if you can still have something from either party is republican,
Biden has sent tons and tons and tons and tons of armaments to Israel.
Where is the hakoras hatov (gratitude), oh you frum yidden?
Shame on all of you.
Trump threw the Kurds in Syria under the bus, he threw the Afhanistanis under the bus, and is ready to throw the Ukrainians under the bus. How long before the orange-haired lunatic throws Israel under the bus.
The insurectionists of Jan 6 are his ‘heroes’, his ‘Hostages’ (how low can you go to call them hostages, when we have true hostages still in Gaza?)
Shame on all of you who support a demagogue, liar, lecher, and sore loser.
If he wins, we will all be in farhakte tzures – I will not translate.
Hmmm, so Jews should vote for an immoral demented rapist, a thief, a fraud, an enemy of the constitution? He hadn’t said a single word about the war until the last week or so. His core supporters are rabid racists and anti semites.
Jews who vote for Democrats are like a wife whose husband ran off with a younger woman but insists that if she just shows her husband how loyal she is and how dedicated she is to the relationship then maybe he will come back. Pathetic, sad and sorry.
@yechiell
Former (and hopefully future) President Trump gave Israel peace- none of this went on when he was in office.
Unfortunately President Biden gave Israel 1,000+ casualties and tons and tons of weapons. (Probably not out of the goodness of his heart but to discourage Israel from running low on conventional weapons and using nuclear weapons which would destabilize the entire region.)
As a supposedly Frum person which would you rather- the precious lives of those murdered or an unlimited amount of weapons (and whatever else comes with voting Democrat like the slaughter of unborn babies, perverts in the girls locker rooms, unlimited fetanol across the southern border and of course getting benefits to willfully not work)?
Caroline Glick said:
“Over the past several years, Congress made several attempts to amend Title VI to include anti-Jewish discrimination. These efforts enjoyed broad bipartisan support.
But they were all blocked by members of the progressive camp inside the Democratic congressional caucus. Like the anti-Semitic boycott activists ostracizing Jews on campuses, the progressive lawmakers claimed that expansion of the protections of Title VI to include anti-Jewish discrimination would undermine the free speech rights of anti-Israel activists on campuses. That is, they said the rights of anti-Semites to preach anti-Semitism superseded the rights of Jewish students not to be harassed.”
SOURCE: Why American Jews slander President Trump
by Caroline Glick 2019/12/15 www (dot) JNS (dot) org
Donald Trump ordered the relocation of the American diplomatic mission to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. He is also organized the Abraham Accords and Trump withdrew the US from the Iranian Arms Deal.
@jackk
What President Trump said was the brutal truth. Are you Loony Libs so far removed from the truth that anyone speaking the truth is an idiot?
Voting Democrat shows that you either hate Israel or you feel that the few thousand Dollars the Democrats give people not to work is worth more than the Jewish lives lost in Israel.
Real Yidden will be voting for President Trump this November.
Have you ever discussed this with your Rabbi? What’s her opinion?
Agreed!!!
I get no pleasure from watching all the Jewish Democrats squirm and recoil in the comments above in reaction to the obvious truth. But hopefully, they should recognize all the Jews who agree with Trump’s comment and humble themselves to the idea that voting Democrat might be wrong.
Not all arrogant Jews vote Democrat, but all Democrat Jews seem to be unusually arrogant.
He’s correct. Democrats are the party of atheists and Ishmaelites. At this point a Jihad suicide bomber could enter a cheder and Joe Biden would ask us to have sympathy for his family and think of his pain exploding apart.
Dr. Pepper says:
so right
Oh stop being so sensationalist. It’s דברים פשוטים.
The only thing worse than a liberal is a liberal Jew, he’s 100% correct
Wow this guy have it by far
He say 100% the truth even they left don’t like it
I like people who say the truth not people who talk diplomatic lies
Trump is similar to Ahasheverus who the gemora calls a tipush, a fool.
More important than being right; he is not afraid to speak hard truths power
to all the traitorous Jews who hate Jews more than the Hamas does. like jackk and reb eliezer for instance.