Donald Trump supporters launch anti-Semitic attacks on journalist who profiled Melania Trump

(Image credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

published 29 April 2016

Donald Trump supporters have lashed back at journalist Julia Ioffe after she published a piece in GQ revealing Melania Trump has a secret half-brother living in Slovenia. The harassment has been viciously anti-Semitic: "The irony of this is that today, when I was getting all of this horrible anti-Semitic shit that I've only ever seen in Russia, I was reminded that 26 years ago today my family came to the U.S. from Russia," Ioffe told The Guardian. "We left Russia because we were fleeing anti-Semitism."

The harassment has ranged from disturbing images sent to Ioffe's inbox to threatening calls:

On Thursday, she answered a phone call from an anonymous caller who played a Hitler speech. She received another call from "Overnight Caskets." On Twitter, users posted photos of her face superimposed on a mug shot from Auschwitz. The Daily Stormer, a white supremacist site, attacked Ioffe in a blog post titled: "Empress Melania Attacked by Filthy Russian Kike Julia Ioffe in GQ!""It's unsettling," she said on Thursday night. "I started the day off having a sense of humor about it but by the end of the day, after a few phone calls like this, with people playing Hitler speeches, and the imagery, and people telling me my face would look good on a lampshade, it's hard to laugh." [The Guardian]

"This is not a heavily critical article. There is nothing in it that is untrue," Ioffe added. "If this is how Trump supporters swing into action what happens when the press looks into corrupt dealings, for example, or is critical of his policies?"

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Donald Trump recently adopted an "America first" motto in his foreign policy speech, drawing an awkward comparison to the America First Committee that fought against U.S. involvement in World War II for anti-Semitic reasons. Critics have said Trump seems unaware of the parallel.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.