President Trump said a lot of things in his digressive 35-minute back-and-forth with reporters Wednesday afternoon, from the quixotically amusing — Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell raised interest rates "too fast, too furious" — to the messianic, mendacious, and undiplomatic.
Trump also elaborated on his statement Tuesday that "Jewish people that vote for a Democrat" show "either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty." Some of his Republican Jewish supporters had defended the comment, widely criticized by Jewish groups and Israeli politicians, saying Trump meant Jewish Democrats are disloyal to themselves, not Israel. On Wednesday, Trump clarified: "I think if you vote for a Democrat, you are very, very disloyal to Israel and to the Jewish people."
Trump comments flirted "with a notion that has fueled anti-Semitism for generations and has been at the root of some of the most brutal violence inflicted upon Jews in their history," Julie Hirschfeld Davis explains at The New York Times. "The accusation that Jews have a 'dual loyalty' ... dates back thousands of years. It animated the Nazis in 1930s Germany," and today "it is a common refrain of white supremacists who claim there is a secret plot orchestrated by Jews to replace white people through mass migration and racial integration."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
Trump insisted his comments weren't anti-Semitic.
In fact, "when it comes to Jews, President Trump presents a puzzle," writes Yair Rosenberg at The Washington Post. "His daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism. ... He loudly proclaims his support for Israel and has long employed Jews in prominent positions in his businesses. But Trump also seems to say a lot of anti-Semitic things," including his frequent suggestion that "American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the United States."
"So is Trump a philo-Semite or an anti-Semite? The answer is both," Rosenberg writes. "Trump believes all the anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews. But he sees those traits as admirable. To Trump, the belief that Jews are foreign interlopers who use their wealth to serve their own clannish interests is not a negative — as it is for traditional anti-Semites — but rather a positive." Yes, "this form of 'positive' anti-Semitism is better than the negative kind," he adds, but "it is still deeply dangerous."
Read Rosenberg's essay on Trump's philo-Semitism at The Washington Post and a brief history of the "dual loyalty" slur at The New York Times.
-
October 5 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday's political cartoons include half-truth hucksters, Capitol lockdown, and more
-
Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber bailoutTalking Point Should the government do more to protect business from the ‘cyber shockwave’?
-
Russia: already at war with Europe?Talking Point As Kremlin begins ‘cranking up attacks’ on Ukraine’s European allies, questions about future action remain unanswered
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denialSpeed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartelsspeed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feudSpeed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protestersSpeed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US
-
US government shuts down amid health care standoffSpeed Read Democrats said they won’t vote for a deal that doesn’t renew Affordable Care Act health care subsidies
-
YouTube to pay Trump $22M over Jan. 6 expulsionSpeed Read The president accused the company of censorship following the suspension of accounts post-Capitol riot
-
Oregon sues to stop Trump military deploymentSpeed Read The president wants to send the National Guard into Portland
