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

Donald and Melania Trump
(Image credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

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?"

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

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.

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.