During a campaign event on Thursday in Washington D.C., former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee for 2024, said he would partially blame Jewish voters if he loses the election to Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
“[I]f I don’t win this election…[then] the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss,” Trump said in his speech, which took place at an event supposedly denouncing antisemitism.
Underlying Trump’s complaints was the implication that Jewish Americans owe him votes for his support of the state of Israel — drawing upon the centuries-old white supremacist conspiracy theory of “dual loyalty,” which suggests that Jewish people are inherently disloyal to their countries. Since the establishment of the state of Israel, the charge has been that Jewish people are more loyal to Israel than to their countries of residence, a refrain echoed by Trump many times before last week.
Trump’s supposed support for Jewish people extends solely to far right politicians who support him, many critics have noted. During his presidential tenure, Trump gave full backing to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his violent expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and his brutal campaign against the Palestinian March of Return. Trump has also expressed support for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians so far.
“With all I have done for Israel, I received only 24 percent of the Jewish vote,” Trump whined, referring to the results of the 2020 election. “I really haven’t been treated very well, but it’s the story of my life.”
“You should have your head examined,” Trump went on, directing his words toward Jewish people who are planning to vote for Harris.
Trump then claimed he was “protecting” Jewish people in the U.S., asserting that Democratic politicians “are the people that are going to destroy you.” (Notably, when neo-Nazis marched through Charlottesville, Virginia, chanting “Jews will not replace us” during Trump’s tenure, his response was to claim there were “very fine people on both sides” of the rally.)
Trump also promised a renewal of his infamous Muslim ban, saying he would not accept Palestinian refugees into the U.S. if he became president again. In his statements, Trump parroted racist talking points regarding potential refugees from Palestine, saying they would come from “terror-infested areas like the Gaza Strip.” In the past, he has described immigrants in fascist terms, describing them as “vermins,” saying they are “not human,” and accusing them of “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Some Republicans have defended Trump’s antisemitic comments. In an appearance on CNN over the weekend, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), an ardent Trump loyalist, bizarrely suggested the comments weren’t an issue because Trump has engaged in such rhetoric before.
“Donald Trump has been saying things like this for at least 11 months,” Cotton told CNN host Jake Tapper, who is Jewish.
“Are you comfortable on [Trump] blaming [a potential election loss] on the Jews preemptively? … This is the first time he’s ever said, ‘if I lose, it will be the fault of Jews.’ … Just yes or no, are you comfortable with him using that language?” Tapper asked the senator.
Cotton reiterated his point, saying, “It’s the same kind of language he’s been using for months.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s okay,” Tapper retorted.
Others condemned Trump’s statements on social media.
“History has shown us that when leaders start blaming ‘the Jewish people’ — like Donald Trump did [on Thursday night] — it doesn’t end well,” the account for the Jewish Democratic Council of America wrote on X. “Donald Trump scapegoating all American Jews for a potential election loss is incredibly dangerous. This kind of antisemitic targeting has led to violence before.”
Directing his comments toward Trump himself, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said:
President Trump, your words preemptively blaming Jews for your potential election loss is of a piece with millennia of antisemitic lies about Jewish power. It puts a target on American Jews. And it makes you an ally not to our vulnerable community but to those who wish us harm.
Former Congressman Mondaire Jones (D-New York) also criticized the former president. “Donald Trump’s latest antisemitic rhetoric puts Jewish people in danger,” Jones said.
“Trump’s rhetoric at an event called ‘fighting antisemitism’ invokes the classic antisemitic trope of disloyalty,” said the X account for T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. “His hateful words are not just wrong; they’re dangerous. Anyone who cares about stopping antisemitism must call this out.”
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