Trump evokes antisemitic tropes, says Jewish Americans ‘don’t like Israel’

Former President Trump evoked antisemitic tropes about Jews in excerpts of an interview released on Friday and claimed that they “either don’t like Israel or don’t care about Israel.”

In the interview with journalist Barak Ravid, portions of which were played on an episode of the “Unholy: Two Jews on the news” podcast released on Friday, Trump said that “there’s people in this country that are Jewish — no longer love Israel. I’ll tell you, the evangelical Christians love Israel more than the Jews in this country,” Trump said in an interview 

He also used common antisemitic tropes about Jewish people having power over Congress and in the media during the interview, as well as suggesting that all Jewish people vote for one political party.

“It used to be that Israel had absolute power over Congress. And today, I think it’s the exact opposite,” Trump said. “And I think Obama and Biden did that. And yet in the election, they still get a lot of votes from Jewish people, which tells you that the Jewish people, and I’ve said this for a long time, the Jewish people in the United States either don’t like Israel or don’t care about Israel,” the former president continued.

“I mean, you look at the New York Times, The New York Times hates Israel — hates ’em. And there’s Jewish people that run the New York Times, I mean the Sulzberger family,” he added.

The Times declined to comment to The Hill regarding the former president’s statements.

The Hill has reached out to White House and a Trump spokesperson for comment.

The comments were criticized by organizations on social media.

“Why is Mr. Trump once again fueling dangerous stereotypes about Jews?” the American Jewish Committee tweeted.

“His past support for Israel doesn’t give him license to traffic in radioactive antisemitic tropes — or peddle unfounded conclusions about the unbreakable ties that bind American Jews to Israel. Enough!” the organization added.

Why is Mr. Trump once again fueling dangerous stereotypes about Jews?

His past support for Israel doesn’t give him license to traffic in radioactive antisemitic tropes — or peddle unfounded conclusions about the unbreakable ties that bind American Jews to Israel.

Enough! https://t.co/RueucblSwu

— American Jewish Committee (@AJCGlobal) December 17, 2021

Trump, whose daughter and son-in-law are both Orthodox Jews, has claimed during an interview with Ravid that he has been a supporter of Israel and its former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu by relocating the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, leaving the Iran nuclear deal and recognizing the Golan Heights as Jewish territory.