President Trump, on recent wave of anti-Semitic acts: 'Sometimes it's the reverse, to make people ... look bad'

(Image credit: Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

published 28 February 2017

During a meeting Tuesday with state attorneys general, President Trump apparently suggested the recent spate of anti-Semitic threats across the U.S. could have been an attempt to make other people "look bad." When asked about the fact that there have been 89 bomb threats at 72 Jewish community centers and schools in the U.S. and Canada since the start of 2017, Trump reportedly responded by saying "sometimes it's the reverse." "He just said, 'Sometimes it's the reverse, to make people — or to make others — look bad,' and he used the word 'reverse' I would say two or three times in his comments," Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said.

Shapiro did note that Trump opened the meeting by calling the attacks "reprehensible," and Trump has previously denounced the "horrible" acts of anti-Semitism and vowed they would stop. But Shapiro was left unsure as to why Trump suggested it was "the reverse" at the meeting Tuesday, or what Trump meant by the remark.