
Trump & The Anti-Semites

After days of mounting criticism, President Trump yesterday forcefully denounced the rise in anti-Semitic incidents across the country. Last week, not so much denouncing anti-Semitism, plenty of denouncing the press. History shows a connection between the two.
Following a tour of the National Museum of African American History & Culture, President Trump declared that the institution was âa meaningful reminder of why we have to fight bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly forms. The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centers are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil.â
At last weekâs press conference, the president took it personally when a reporter asked him about bomb threats called in to Jewish community centers. âSo hereâs the story, folks,â he said. âNumber One, I am the least anti-Semitic person that youâve ever seen in your entire life. Number Two, the least racist.â
When Jake Tur, the yarmulke-clad reporter from the Hasidic weekly Ami Magazine, began to protest that he had not, in fact, said the president was anti-Semitic, Mr. Trump silenced him. âQuiet, quiet, quiet,â he said, then he claimed the reporter âliedâ about the question (he didnât) and then added, âwelcome to the world of the media.â
On Friday, the president escalated his attacks on the media, tweeting that the New York Times, NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN were âthe enemy of the American people.â
Mr. Trump famously does not read books. But to anyone who does, the phrase âenemy of the peopleâ is chilling. Hitler used it in his war against the Jews. Coming from Stalin or Mao, it was a death sentence. In a provocative essay for the Los Angeles Review of Books, âExplaining Hitlerâ author Ron Rosenbaum explored Hitlerâs forgotten campaign to destroy the Munich Post newspaper and parallels with the Trump era. âThe Munich Post never stopped investigating who Hitler was and what he wanted,â Mr. Rosenbaum writes, âand Hitler never stopped hating them for it.â Now, letâs be clear: Donald Trump is not Hitler and the U.S. in 2017 is not Germany in 1933. But there are things to be learned from reading books. Such as, attacks on liberty often begin with attacks on journalists and Jews.
In October, the Anti-Defamation League released a report documenting âa troubling, year-long rise in anti-Semitic hate targeting journalists on Twitterâ during the 2016 presidential campaign. âThese aggressors,â the ADL noted, âare disproportionately likely to self-identify as Donald Trump supporters, conservatives, or part of the âalt-right,â a loosely connected group of extremists, some of whom are white supremacists.â The Trump campaign did not support any of this ugliness, but it did nothing to stop it.
Yesterday one of the stars of the alt-right came crashing down. Milo Yiannopoulos was disinvited from a starring role at the Conservative Political Action Conference, stripped of a lucrative book deal and resigned under pressure from Breitbart News after a videotape emerged of him praising pedophilia. Mr. Yiannopoulos is a professional provocateur with a long history of deeply offensive taunts, including anti-Semitic jibes.
Mr. Trump himself has had brushes with anti-Semitismâmainly a reluctance to distance himself from racist followers and anti-Semitic commentary, as well as some really bad Jewish jokes. But he also has many defenders who forcefully reject the anti-Semitism charge. Among them are his Jewish son-in-law Jared Kushner, Mr. Tur from Ami Magazine, and the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, who called him âa great friend of Israel and the Jewish people.â
I donât think Donald Trump is an anti-Semite. But he does have a weird relationship with anti-Semitism. He appears to sincerely believe he is âthe least anti-Semitic personâ ever, but he invokes the Nazi charge âenemy of the peopleâ and the isolationist and anti-Semitic slogan from another era, âAmerica First.â He wants an administration that is all about âlove,â but brings into his White House top aides associated with the racists and xenophobes of the alt-right. He is an avid consumer of conspiracy theories spreading paranoia and hatred. Whatever drives Donald Trumpâan idea of âstrength,â perhaps, or a dystopian view of America shaped by decades inside his surreal celebrity billionaire bubble, or his strange sense of grievanceâit is not Jew-hatred.
But the haters are out thereâand itâs not just the Jews, of course. Also out there: a fear among many about what President Trump may do. The haters are nothing new. The level of fear, that is new.
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Micah Morrison is chief investigative reporter for Judicial Watch. Follow him on Twitter @micah_morrison. Tips: [email protected]
Investigative Bulletin is published weekly by Judicial Watch. Reprints and media inquiries: [email protected].