TRUMP AGAIN CALLS JEWS WHO BACK DEMOCRATS ‘DISLOYAL’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s branding of American Jews who vote for Democrats as “disloyal” to their religion and Israel prompted alarms of antiSemitism. But his ultimate aim appears to be dividing Democrats, peeling off Jewish support and shoring up his white evangelical Christian base.
Digging in Wednesday despite widespread criticism, Trump repeated his controversial assertion about Jews who support the Democratic Party.
“In my opinion, if you vote for a Democrat, you’re being very disloyal to Jewish people and you’re being very disloyal to Israel,” he told reporters. “And only weak people would say anything other than that.”
The comment — which appeared to traffic in anti-Semitic tropes about Jews’ supposed loyalty to Israel — added a sharper edge to Trump’s appeals to another largely Democratic constituency: black voters, whom he challenged to support him in 2016 by asking: “What do you have to lose?” This time, Trump and his allies are trying to lure Jewish voters who they think could be turned off by liberal Democrats’ willingness to criticize the Israeli government.
Trump has focused on four Democratic congresswomen of color who have voiced misgivings about U.S. policy toward Israel, trying to brand them the “face” of their party.
“Democrats continue to embrace and defend the most vitriolic anti-Semites in their midst, who sympathize and side with terrorist organizations who want to wipe Israel from the map,” Trump campaign strategist Michael Glassner said in a statement. “As a Jew myself, I strongly believe that President Trump is right to highlight that there is only one party — the Democrats — excusing and permitting such anti-Jewish venom to be spewed so freely.”
But Trump’s admonitions are unlikely to sway Jewish voters, who have overwhelmingly voted Democratic for decades. In 2018, AP VoteCast found that 72% of Jewish voters supported Democratic House candidates.
Indeed, even some Trump allies concede that the president’s attempt to paint himself as more pro-Israel than Democrats is more likely to resonate with evangelical voters, who polls show are more supportive of Trump’s brand of pro-Israel, Benjamin Netanyahua-ligned policies than American Jews are.