Only Donald Trump could manage to turn a speech meant to address the serious matter of growing antisemitism in the United States into a speech about him. Only Donald Trump could manage to turn an occasion meant to rally support for the state of Israel into an occasion to complain that the Jewish people do not show him enough love and loyalty after all he did for Israel during his term as president.
But that is exactly what the former president did last Thursday when he appeared at the annual Israeli American Council (IAC) summit in Washington, D.C. It got so bad that Trump warned his audience that if he loses in November, it would be the fault of the Jewish people.
“The Jewish people,” Trump said, “would have a lot to do with the loss.”
That was an outrageous suggestion. It is a classically antisemitic move, blaming and scapegoating Jews.
As the United States Department of State notes in its bulletin on antisemitism, “Antisemitism…is often used to blame Jews for ‘why things go wrong.’ It is expressed in speech, writing, visual forms, and action, and employs sinister stereotypes and negative character traits.”
The World Jewish Congress agrees that blaming Jews is an intrinsic part of antisemitism. “Throughout history,” it says, “the Jewish people have often been accused of heinous crimes and of being the cause of society’s problems, especially tragedies—whether health, economic or political—that were difficult, if not impossible, to explain. This phenomenon isn’t only deeply problematic; it is antisemitic.”
What Trump said about Jews being partially responsible for a defeat at the polls was particularly dangerous given the climate of hate and violence to which he has already contributed so much. Hate groups might use it to ratchet up suspicion of Jews and as grounds for further attacks on Jewish people after the November election.
Trump’s remark was the equivalent of his infamous 2020 admonition to the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.”
As former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah said after Trump’s speech about antisemitism. “This is incredibly dangerous antisemitism, pure and simple. It’s an old trick that has worked – laying the groundwork for a scapegoat.”
Trump’s warning to Jews came late in his speech, much of which was spent in a self-absorbed rant about his polling numbers. Over and over, Trump wondered why more Jewish people had not voted for him in 2020 and were not supporting him this year.
He seemed fixated on the fact that he received only 24% of the Jewish vote in 2016 and only 29% in 2020. “With all I have done for Israel,” Trump complained, “I received only 24% of the Jewish vote. Now, think of this. I really haven’t been treated very well. But that’s the story of my life. It’s true.”
Only someone with Trump’s infinite and insatiable desire and narcissistic preoccupations could think that being born to wealth, living with privilege, and serving as President of the United States equals not being treated very well his whole life. As familiar as it all is coming from the former president, it was still shocking to hear.
What Trump said last Thursday gives further evidence to support what the Democrats have been saying throughout the 2024 presidential campaign. As former President Barack Obama puts it, “[T]his election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself.”
Or, as Hilary Clinton said in an appearance on The View last week, “We now have a clear understanding of who Trump is. He has a very fragile ego that needs constant reinforcement. People have to tell him how great he is, and he has to convince himself of his greatness.”
Perhaps that is why Trump trumpets his own achievements in grandiose ways. He did it again in his speech to IAC.
He called himself “the best friend Israel has ever had.” He insisted he was “the best president ever for Israel and the Jewish people.” He boasted that he had a 99% approval rating in Israel and could easily be elected to any office in that country.
Trump claimed that any Jew who would vote for Harris and the Democrats “should have their head examined.” He said that they would only do so “because of the Democrat hold, or curse, on you.”
Trump’s campaign wants to break that hold because, according to the Washington Post, it “sees gains with Jewish voters as a path to winning the pivotal swing states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.” The Post also reminds us that “Trump’s remarks are part of a long-standing pattern of criticizing Jewish Democrats.”
Recall that last March, Trump said that any Jewish person who votes for Democrats “hates their religion…. They hate everything about Israel.”
He went on to say that “they should be ashamed of themselves.”
CNN reports that Trump made similar statements “during his first two presidential campaigns.”
CNN quotes the former president as telling an audience at the Republican Jewish Coalition in December 2015, “‘You’re not gonna support me because I don’t want your money. You want to control your politicians, that’s fine, I’m a negotiator like you folks, we are negotiators.’”
CNN argues that “Trump’s open frustration with Jewish voters became a more frequent theme in the aftermath of his 2020 election defeat….” Among other things, he complained that “wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of [his Israel record] than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.”
He urged “U.S. Jews…to get their act together.”
And what could Jewish Americans need to do to get their act together and also assuage Trump’s fragile ego? In his speech to IAC, Trump made no bones about it.
The only adequate expression of gratitude would be if he gets 100% of the Jewish vote in November. In Trump’s view, Jews owe total allegiance to him. Anything less is a betrayal.
He listed all the things he did for Israel and then made clear what he expected in return. “Based on what I did…I should be at 100.”
If the polls are right, Trump has a long way to go if that is his goal.
While he claimed that he now has the support of 40% among Jewish Americans, a survey by the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) released on September 9 showed something different. “72% of Jewish voters back Kamala Harris,” it said, “while only 25% support Donald Trump in a head-to-head matchup.”
The JDCA poll found that “Harris’s lead over Trump by a 47-point margin (72%–25%) is an improvement from Biden’s 41-point margin among Jewish voters in April (67%–26%) when compared to an April poll of Jewish voters conducted by the Jewish Electorate Institute (JEI).”
And, in a particularly stinging rebuke of the former president, it turns out that “Jewish voters trust Kamala Harris more than Donald Trump to fight antisemitism by nearly a three-to-one margin (60%–23%)
In the end, Trump’s speech about antisemitism revealed more about his pathologies than it did about what he would do to cope with hostility to American Jews if he is returned to the Oval Office. In fact, he may have made that hostility worse.
But that hardly seems to matter to Trump. What matters to him is that American Jews should fall in line and do what he needs them to do.