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Donald Trump and antisemitism

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Donald Trump and antisemitism
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Donald Trump, the president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 and since 2025, has a history of speech and actions that have been viewed by scholars, Jewish organizations, and the public as antisemitic or fostering a political climate that is hospitable to antisemites. President Trump has also been an outspoken critic of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel sentiment in the United States, including on college campuses, which he characterizes as antisemitic, and has signed two executive orders to counter antisemitism and anti-Zionism. Critics have alleged that President Trump has views that are simultaneously pro-Israel and antisemitic.[1] Opinion polls have found that a slight majority of American Jews regard Trump as antisemitic and a large majority disapprove of his antisemitism policies.[2][3]

Trump states in the White House on August 20, 2019, "I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty."
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Accusations of antisemitism

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Antisemitic tropes and threats

According to former Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino president John O'Donnell, in the 1990s Trump said "Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are little short guys that wear yarmulkes every day."[4]

During Trump's 2016 campaign for president, The Times of Israel published a timeline of his antisemitic "controversies", including remarks he made to the Republican Jewish Coalition invoking tropes about Jews and money.[5] In his first presidency, he was accused of espousing antisemitism on numerous occasions. In a speech at the Israeli-American Council in 2019, Trump referenced classic antisemitic tropes in his appeal to Jewish voters.[6] Discourse around Trump's relationship with Judaism in America was revived later in his presidency. In October 2022, Trump called for American Jews to "appreciate Israel before it's too late", aligning with his past claims that American Jews no longer love Israel.[7]

The New York Times has accused the Trump campaign of using antisemitic imagery, tropes, and dog whistles in campaign emails, including references to George Soros conspiracy theories, images of money mixed with Stars of David, and terminology such as "globalists" and "cabal".[8]

In a speech on July 3, 2025, Trump said, "Think of that: No death tax. No estate tax. No going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker - and in some cases, Shylocks and bad people”, invoking the trope of Jews as greedy moneylenders.[9][10]

Jewish voters who support Democrats "disloyal"

On August 20, 2019, after a reporter asked "Should there be any change in U.S. aid to Israel?", Donald Trump stated within his answer, "And I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty." Trump counterposed the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, which he represented. The utterance caused outrage,[11] shock and disdain[12] from Jewish leaders and citizens in the United States.[13][14][15] They claimed that the president was perpetuating antisemitic stereotypes.[15][16] Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders responded at a campaign rally in Iowa City, "I am a proud Jewish person, and I have no concerns about voting Democratic. And in fact, I intend to vote for a Jewish man to become the next president of the United States."[17][18][19]

2022 Mar-a-Lago incident

On November 22, 2022, Trump had a private dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Ye (formerly known as Kanye West), who brought Nick Fuentes along with him. Fuentes is a prominent Holocaust-denier and antisemite, and Ye had made widely reported antisemitic comments during the months before the dinner. Trump later stated that he hadn't known of Fuentes' beliefs; however, in discussing the dinner, Trump did not condemn his guests' antisemitism.[20] Both Republicans and Democrats criticized his choice to dine with them.[21]

Claim that Jewish Democrats hate Israel and their religion

On March 18, 2024, Trump was criticized for claiming "any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion", and that "they hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed". Following mounting criticism from Jewish groups, Trump's campaign responded that "Trump is right", and that the Democratic Party "has turned into a full-blown anti-Israel, antisemitic, pro-terrorist cabal". Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League called Trump's comments "defamatory and patently false". Chief executive Amy Spitalnick of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs claimed that Trump was "further normalizing dangerous antisemites". Trump's claims were accused of evoking an antisemitic trope that Jews have a 'dual loyalty' and are more loyal to Israel than to their own countries. Trump's comments echoed previous comments he made during his presidency by accusing Jews who vote for Democrats as "disloyal".[22] Following his initial comments on March 18, Trump repeatedly accused Jews who voted or intended to vote for Joe Biden of betraying their religious and cultural identities.[23]

Kamala Harris' campaign and several non-partisan Jewish organizations criticized Trump's comments during an antisemitism conference on September 19 where he stated that "if I don't win this election" then "the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss" and continued criticizing liberal Jews for "voting for the enemy" by claiming the Democratic party had a "hold, or curse" on Jewish Americans.[24][25]

Jewish voters to blame if Trump lost election

In September 2024, at an event dedicated to countering antisemitism, Donald Trump complained about his lack of support among Jewish voters and stated that Jewish voters would be substantially to blame if he lost the 2024 presidential election, saying that "I'm not going to call this a prediction, but, in my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss if I’m at 40%." In response, Doug Emhoff said that Trump had "once again fanned the flames of antisemitism by trafficking in tropes blaming and scapegoating Jews."[26] ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt said that Trump had undermined his own message against antisemitism by "employing numerous antisemitic tropes and anti-Jewish stereotypes", including the accusation of dual loyalty.[27]

Denying Chuck Schumer's Jewishness

In March 2025, Trump made comments denying the Jewishness of Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in the United States Senate: "As far as I'm concerned, he's become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He's not Jewish any more. He's a Palestinian." Trump's remarks were condemned by rights groups as antisemitic and anti-Palestinian.[28][29][30] In response, Schumer alleged that Trump "does not do enough to combat antisemitism...even though I don't think he's antisemitic himself."[31]

Poll of Jewish voters

In a May 2025 poll of registered US voters who are Jewish, 52% viewed Trump as somewhat or very antisemitic. Sixty-four percent disapproved of Trump's efforts to combat antisemitism, compared to 36% who approved.[32]

Response of Jewish organizations

In 2025, former Anti-Defamation League chief Abraham Foxman denounced the ADL and its new chief Jonathan Greenblatt as well as other Jewish organizations and figures for an allegedly muted response to antisemitism within the Trump administration and among Trump supporters, comparing the response to Stockholm syndrome. Regarding the 2024 Donald Trump rally at Madison Square Garden, Foxman stated that "There's no question about it: For the American Jewish Committee, the ADL, Conference of Presidents, the federations, all these institutions, if this happened six months ago, they would be out there condemning racism and antisemitism and hate speech."[33]

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Executive orders to counter antisemitism

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See also: Executive Order 13899, Executive Order 14188, and Activist deportations in the second Trump presidency

During his first administration, on December 11, 2019, Trump signed Executive Order 13899, "Combating Anti-Semitism," aimed at making it easier to use laws that prohibit institutional discrimination against people based on race, color or national origin to punish discrimination against Jewish people, and classifying opposition to the existence of Israel as antisemitism.[34][35]

During his second administration, on January 29, 2025, Trump signed Executive Order 14188, "Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism", which focuses on antisemitism in educational settings, especially in higher education.[36] Trump claimed that there has been an "explosion of antisemitism" in the United States and vowed to arrest and deport "Hamas sympathizers" and "pro-jihadist" student protesters.[37] The executive order has been used in attempts to deport holders of student visas and green cards who have expressed pro-Palestinian views,[38] and in investigations into 60 colleges and universities based on their alleged failures to protect students from "antisemitic harassment and discrimination".[39] Such uses have been supported by some Jewish groups and opposed by others,[40] with more than one of the latter groups suggesting that antisemitism is being used as a guise for authoritarianism.[40][41][42] When polled in May, 49% of registered Jewish voters said that the actions taken against higher education had increased antisemitism, compared to 25% who believed that they reduced antisemitism, and when asked about the arrest and deportation of pro-Palestinian protesters, 61% said that it increased antisemitism, compared to 20% who said it reduced antisemitism.[32]

Lily Sawyer-Kaplan, a lawyer with the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, which enforces federal laws that prohibit various kinds of discrimination, resigned in April 2025, citing pressure "to use antisemitism as a pretext to undermine free speech."[43]

Response of Jewish organizations

In April 2025, a group of 10 major Jewish-American organizations issued a joint statement denouncing the Trump administration's antisemitism policies. The statement said that "These actions do not make Jews — or any community — safer. Rather, they only make us less safe." The organizations that denounced Trump's antisemitism policies included the Union for Reform Judaism, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, HIAS, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the American Conference of Cantors, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.[44]

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